A few days ago my colleges and I decided to go out on our own game drive. Although we're out there everyday we wanted to share our knowledge and skills and learn from each other.


We set out at about midmorning and were looking at various trees and insects. One of the rangers stopped us as he had heard a honey guide calling. As we were waiting for it to call again, we saw movement on the tree in front of us. It was the Greater Honey Guide.


According to most tribes, including the Zulus, we believe that a honey guide can lead you to a bee hive, and I have witnessed this many times while being a herd's boy. One of the guides began to mimic the call of the honey guide, and it started to hop from one branch to another, so we decided to follow it on foot. Every so often the bird would stop and check that we were still following it. After about 5 minutes the bird landed on an old dead tree and waited. On closer inspection we saw bees coming in and out of the trunk. The bird was waiting for us to open the hive and collect the honeycombs, but unfortunately we weren't going to do that.


According to the belief, after the honey guide has lead you to a hive you have to leave a honeycomb for it to say thank you, if you don't the bird will feel betrayed. The next time it may not lead you to a hive, but into a dangerous situation, perhaps to a sleeping cobra, to get revenge, so you should always leave something behind as a thank you.

Sandiso Shabangu - Field Guide