The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

["Josh Greenman" <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/chimps_harvest_bee_nests_in_ugandan_reserve_10116.html

Chimps harvest bee nests in Ugandan reserve

In the first study of native African honeybees and honey-making
stingless bees in the same habitat, humans and chimpanzees are the
primary bee nest predators. Robert Kajobe of the Dutch Tropical Bee
Research Unit and David Roubik from the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute report this finding in the March, 2006 issue of Biotropica.

Batwa Pygmies, who have traditionally harvested honey for food,
located 228 bee nests (both honeybees and stingless bees) for the
study. Roubik identified the bees and found that Pygmy names for the
bees corresponded to scientific names, except for a black and a brown
form of Meliponula ferruginea. Honeybee (Apis) nests were numerous
compared to other sites in the tropics, whereas honey-making stingless
bee nests were relatively scarce. Nest abundance did not vary with
altitude, nor did pollen collection or the seasonality of flowering.

Both honey bees and stingless bees make honey. Apis mellifera, the
most commonly cultivated honeybee, is native to Europe and Africa.
Apis mellifera subspecies scutellata, the very defensive tropical
African honeybee, was transplanted from Africa to Brazil as part of a
scientific experiment to boost honey production in 1956. From Brazil,
it invaded the Americas, working its way northward and is now found in
southern U.S. states.

Dave Roubik has followed the progress of Africanized honeybees in the
New World, documenting effects of pollen and nectar collecting and
nesting ecology on native-American stingless bees. Kajobe invited
Roubik to visit the Bwindi-Impenetrable National Park in southwestern
Uganda, where African honeybees coexist with five or more species of
honey-making stingless bees in their native habitat.

Chimps in the Park peel and chew the tips of vines and twigs to make
honey dipsticks. Roubik notes that indigenous groups in the Americas
use similar honey brushes to harvest honey in areas where Africanized
bees are relative newcomers [see photo].

"Most studies of stingless bees have been undertaken in South America
and south-east Asia and have ignored the ecology and context of
Afro-tropical stingless bee species, particularly in equatorial
regions. I hope this is just the beginning of a long-lasting
collaboration that will make a significant contribution to
Afro-tropical bee research," Kajobe writes.

"Bwindi-Impenetrable is the only place on earth where gorillas, chimps
and humans partition forest resources. Given the importance of honey
as one of the most concentrated sources of sugar and protein in the
forest, and the fact that the park management plan allows collection
of non-timber forest products, there is an abysmal lack of ecological
information about the role of honey-making bees and the role of their
natural predators in this ecosystem. Nothing is known about the amount
of honey produced in nests of different species. Nothing is known
about how often bee species found new nests. Unfortunately, this
dearth of information about native bees will continue unless more
funding for basic natural history research is forthcoming," asserts
Roubik.

>From Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute