title: Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism.
abstract: Greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) lead human honey-hunters to wild bees' nests, in a rare example of a mutualistic foraging partnership between humans and free-living wild animals. We show experimentally that a specialized vocal sound made by Mozambican honey-hunters seeking bees' nests elicits elevated cooperative behavior from honeyguides. The production of this sound increased the probability of being guided by a honeyguide from about 33 to 66% and the overall probability of thus finding a bees' nest from 17 to 54%, as compared with other animal or human sounds of similar amplitude. These results provide experimental evidence that a wild animal in a natural setting responds adaptively to a human signal of cooperation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation (DST-NRF) Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. cns26@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Claire N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Spottiswoode
authors.affiliation: The Ratel Trust, Niassa Carnivore Project, Private Bag X18, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
authors.forename: Keith S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Begg
authors.affiliation: The Ratel Trust, Niassa Carnivore Project, Private Bag X18, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
authors.forename: Colleen M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Begg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006722:Honey; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D009073:Mozambique; D013559:Symbiosis; D014828:Vocalization, Animal