ERC Consolidator Grant · 2016
Species interactions such as mutualism, parasitism and predation underpin much of life’s diversity. We aim to understand the mechanistic role of learnt traits in the origin and maintenance of mutualistic interactions between species, and to test their evolutionary and ecological consequences. To do so, we shall study a remarkable mutualism: the foraging partnership between an African bird species, the greater honeyguide Indicator indicator, and the human honey-hunters whom it guides to bees’ nests. Honeyguides know where bees’ nests are located and like to eat beeswax; humans have the ability to subdue the bees and open the nest, thus exposing beeswax for the honeyguides and honey for the…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.