Episode
Okay, but can a bird really cooperate with humans?
- Podcast
- Okay, But... Birds
- Published
- May 21, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1981
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://okaybutbirds.com
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Summary
E23. Across sub-Saharan Africa, wild birds and people work together to find honey. No taming, no breeding, no domestication… just a partnership thousands of years in the making. Behavioral ecologist Dr. Jessica van der Wal, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what's actually happening when a honey hunter calls and a greater honeyguide answers. In this episode you'll hear about: What each side gets out of one of the only known mutualisms between humans and a wild animal, and why this bird in particular evolved to seek us out The remarkable signal the honeyguide uses to communicate with people, and what playback experiments revealed when researchers tested it across very different communities What happens to a partnership built over generations when one side starts buying honey at the store All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Greater Honeyguide audio contributed by Jennifer F. M. Horne, ML55972 Additional media courtesy of Dr. Claire Spottiswoode and Dr. Jessica van der Wal