“He [the honey badger] has besides, as well as the [local peoples], the sagacity to follow a small bird, which flies on by degrees with the alluring note of ‘cherr, cherr, cherr’, and guides its followers to the bees’ nest” – from Andrew [Anders] Sparrman’s A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, Towards the Antarctic Polar Circle, and Round the World, 1772–1776, Volume II (1785; Perth, Scotland: R Morison and Son).

For those of us born outside of Africa, the idea that honey badgers (Mellivora capensis; Figure 1) and greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) have a thing going on all started with those words penned by Swedish naturalist Anders Sparrman (1748–1820). Africans, from whom Sparrman got the scoop, had of course understood it to be the case for a very long time. It apparently being insufficiently fascinating that honeyguides should lead humans to bees’ nests for mutual benefit, we have taken delight in Sparrman’s badger–bird relationship and have recounted it ever since in learned texts, popular articles, illustrations, and artwork as an example of coevolved mutualism. In the late 1980s it was celebrated on a 40-sente stamp issued by the nation of Lesotho, and in very recent years has been the subject of children’s books, a display at the State Darwin Museum in Moscow, and a school curriculum element produced by a UK science communication company. It’s even used in the publicity of a safari business. And if – like me – you wouldn’t have told it any differently (because you’ve known it since you were a kid!), you might be equally annoyed to discover there are people out there trying to hornswoggle you into believing something else!

Smithsonian ornithologist Herbert Friedmann (1900–1987) was among the first to get wind of it. In his 1955 book The Honey-Guides (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, US National Museum Bulletin 208), he tells that in 1950, when he went to Africa, he realized there were no recorded eyewitness accounts of these two animals working together. So he set off to see whether he could fix that, and with much effort gathered many, many reports of people having seen honey badgers in the company of honeyguides, apparently being led by them. He even recorded an instance of a nearly full guiding sequence: “The [scouts] then saw that the bird was leading and calling to a ratel [honey badger], and they followed at a short distance for some 200–300 yards until they came to the bees’ nests”. And although he never saw this behavior with his own eyes, the sheer mass of information he collected was proof enough for him, and he declared the association real. Good old Friedmann!

But someone’s always got to spoil things! Much of Friedmann’s evidence was circumstantial, ran the argument of researchers at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology (Cape Town, South Africa) (Conserv Biol 1990; 4: 99–101). Was the bird leading or following the badger? Like many other juicy snippets, the above guiding sequence was a reported – rather than a first-hand – account. And where in all of this was proof of coevolved mutualism? Friedmann had intriguing information, sure, but perhaps not enough to clinch it. Honestly, how dare they!

Now, you’d think that Claire Spottiswoode, who has spent years in the field observing honeyguides, would have seen her birds leading badgers to a sticky dinner, but she is on record declaring it all unsubstantiated (https://bit.ly/3wPe6sh)! Why, even honey badger experts Colleen and Keith Begg seem to be unconvinced! Just look what they write on their website (http://www.honeybadger.com/faq.html): “This relationship continues to be a contentious issue amongst ornithologists and has never been comprehensively documented. We have never seen this association despite seeing badgers break into hives on many occasions in areas where honeyguides also exist. We believe honeyguides might follow the badgers rather than the other way around.”

And I suppose other skeptics might insist that a recent paper (Biodivers Obs 2017; 8: 1–6) in which filmed honeyguides were reported calling to a young, orphaned honey badger raised at an animal sanctuary falls short of proving these animals’ bee-bashing arrangement exists? Well, sure, the badger didn’t respond, but was he obliged to? Especially when everyone knows they work together! Will no one help me out here?

“There is that enigmatic something about honey badgers that people would love to connect up with birds and bees”, says Johan du Toit (Utah State University; Logan, UT). “But honey badgers would be very unreliable partners. If a honeyguide could get one to start following it through the bush towards a beehive, chances are the honey badger would come across a snake or lizard or nest of newborn rodents and eat those, and then have a nap and forget about the bees. Honey badgers simply do their own thing. They’re unreliable, irresponsible, incorrigibly uncooperative and uncaring, which is perhaps why they are so charismatic.”

Thank you! They’re charismatic! That’s reason enough for honeyguides to lead them to honey, isn’t it? Someone tell me it is, please!

Adrian Burton

“他 [蜜獾] 和 [当地人] 一样，具有跟随一只小鸟的智慧，它带着‘雪儿、雪儿、雪儿’的诱人音符逐渐飞翔，并引导它的追随者到蜂巢”——摘自安德鲁 [安德斯] 斯巴曼的好望角航行、南极极圈和环游世界，1772-1776 年，第二卷（1785 年；苏格兰珀斯：R Morison 和儿子） .

对于我们这些在非洲以外出生的人来说，蜜獾（Mellivora capensis；图 1）和更大的蜜獾（指标指示器）的想法都是从瑞典博物学家安德斯·斯帕曼（Anders Sparrman，1748-1820 年）所写的那些词开始的。非洲人，斯巴曼从他们那里得到了独家新闻，当然，很长一段时间以来，人们都明白这是事实。蜜饯为了互惠互利而将人类引向蜂巢显然不够引人入胜，我们对斯巴曼的獾-鸟关系感到高兴，并从那时起在学术文本、流行文章、插图和艺术品中将其作为共同进化的例子进行了叙述。互惠互利。在80年代末有人庆祝一个40-先手由莱索托国家发行的邮票，近年来一直是儿童书籍的主题，在莫斯科国家达尔文博物馆展出，以及由英国科学传播公司制作的学校课程元素。它甚至用于宣传野生动物园业务。如果 - 像我一样 - 你不会以任何不同的方式告诉它（因为你从小就知道它！），你可能会同样恼火地发现有人试图让你相信别的东西！

史密森尼鸟类学家赫伯特·弗里德曼 (Herbert Friedmann) (1900–1987) 是最早发现它的人之一。在他 1955 年的著作《蜂蜜指南》（华盛顿特区：史密森学会，美国国家博物馆公报）中208)，他说 1950 年，当他去非洲时，他意识到这两种动物一起工作的目击者记录没有记录。于是他出发去看看他是否能解决这个问题，并努力收集了很多很多关于人们在蜜獾的陪伴下看到蜜獾的报告，显然是由他们领导的。他甚至记录了一个几乎完整的引导序列的实例：“[侦察员]然后看到这只鸟正在引导并呼唤一只浣熊[蜜獾]，他们在很短的距离内跟随了大约200-300码，直到他们来到到蜜蜂的巢穴”。虽然他从未亲眼见过这种行为，但他收集到的海量信息足以证明他的关系，他宣布这种联系是真实的。老弗里德曼好！

但总有人要破坏东西！弗里德曼的大部分证据都是间接的，这是 FitzPatrick 非洲鸟类学研究所（南非开普敦）的研究人员的论点（Conserv Biol 1990; 4 : 99–101）。是鸟在引领还是跟随獾？像许多其他有趣的片段一样，上述指导序列是报告的——而不是第一手的——叙述。在所有这一切中哪里证明了共同进化的共生主义？弗里德曼当然有一些有趣的信息，但也许还不足以确定。老实说，他们怎么敢！

现在，你会认为克莱尔·斯波蒂斯伍德 (Claire Spottiswoode) 在实地观察了多年的蜜饯，会看到她的鸟带领獾吃一顿黏糊糊的晚餐，但她有记录地宣布这一切都没有根据 (https://bit.ly/ 3wPe6sh）！为什么，就连蜜獾专家科琳和基思·贝格似乎都不相信！看看他们在网站 (http://www.honeybadger.com/faq.html) 上写的内容：“这种关系在鸟类学家中仍然是一个有争议的问题，并且从未被全面记录过。尽管在也存在蜜饯的地区多次看到獾闯入蜂巢，但我们从未见过这种关联。我们相信蜜饯可能会跟随獾而不是相反。”

我想其他怀疑论者可能会坚持认为，最近的一篇论文 ( Biodivers Obs 2017; 8 : 1-6) 报道称，其中拍摄的蜜獾会召唤一只在动物保护区饲养的年轻孤儿蜜獾，并不能证明这些动物的蜜蜂——扑杀安排存在吗？嗯，当然，獾没有回应，但他有义务吗？尤其是当每个人都知道他们一起工作时！这里没人帮我吗？

“蜜獾有一种神秘的东西，人们喜欢与鸟类和蜜蜂联系起来”，Johan du Toit（犹他州立大学；洛根，UT）说。“但蜜獾是非常不可靠的伙伴。如果蜜獾可以让它开始跟随它穿过灌木丛走向蜂巢，那么蜜獾很可能会遇到蛇或蜥蜴或新生啮齿动物的巢穴并吃掉它们，然后小睡一下，忘记蜜蜂。蜜獾只是做自己的事。他们不可靠、不负责任、不可救药地不合作和漠不关心，这也许就是他们如此有魅力的原因。”

谢谢！他们很有魅力！这足以让导蜜带他们去吃蜂蜜，不是吗？有人告诉我是的，拜托！

阿德里安·伯顿