Abstract
The remarkable mutualism between humans and greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) is known still to thrive in only a few places in Africa. Here, we report on the honey-hunting culture of the marginalised Awer people in Kenya, historically a hunter-gatherer culture who today practise a mixed economy including significant amounts of foraging for wild foods. As part of a larger effort to document cross-cultural honey-hunting traditions in Africa, we interviewed six Awer honey-hunters to document their cultural practices. The interviewees reported that they depend on wild honey as a source of income, and that they readily seek the cooperation of honeyguides. Honey-hunting skills and the calls/whistles used to communicate with honeyguides are learnt from their fathers and other elders in village. The best time to honey-hunt is in the months following the big rains (August–December), when interviewees go out honey-hunting once a week on average. Honeyguides are not actively rewarded with wax, as it is believed that once a bird is fed it will not cooperate again for some time, and therefore after the honey harvest is complete, all remaining wax comb is buried. Honey-hunting practices are declining in this region, which interviewees attributed to drought and a lack of interest by the youth. These findings expand our understanding of how human-honeyguide mutualism persists across a range of human cultural variation.
Highlights
Human-wildlife mutualisms involve reciprocally beneficial interactions between humans and free-living, wild, non-human animals (Dounias, 2018)
We report Awer stories and experiences as described by the honeyhunters, to help document this cultural heritage and strengthen our understanding of how human-honeyguide mutualism is maintained across diverse contexts in Africa
Honey plays an important role in Awer culture, similar to other hunter-gatherer cultures such as the Hadza (Marlowe et al, 2014; Wood et al, 2014), Baka (Gruber, 2018), Ndorobo (Van Zwanenberg, 1976; Kenny, 1981; Laltaika, 2021) and Waata (Ville, 1995) people, as well as several non-hunter-gatherer cultures like the Boran (Isack and Reyer, 1989; Isack, 1999) and Yao (Spottiswoode et al, 2016) people who rarely or never practise beekeeping and have limited cash economy for buying honey or sugar (Figure 1A)
Summary
Human-wildlife mutualisms involve reciprocally beneficial interactions between humans and free-living, wild, non-human animals (Dounias, 2018). They are rare, diverse and poorly documented. The birds guide people to bees’ nests, which are harvested for honey and brood using smoke and tools, and the birds feed on the beeswax left behind. This remarkable human-bird mutualism could plausibly be ancient, given that both honeybees (Apis mellifera) and the greater honeyguide lineage existed
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