Biologists have discovered that birds and honey badgers can team up to steal honey from bees. The researchers conducted over 400 interviews with representatives of African tribes. It turned out that more than 60 percent of honey-hunters in Tanzania witnessed birds and honey badgers working together to steal honey and beeswax.
Birds need beeswax to build nests, but they are unable to break into hives on their own. Instead, they show honey badgers where wild bees’ nests are so that they could bust in for honey, leaving beeswax to birds.
This is the first large-scale study confirming the collaboration between honey badgers and birds in nature. Honey-hunters in Tanzania claim that the behavior has been passed down from one generation to the next, while the researchers still believe that the phenomenon is geographically isolated.