A honey badger eating beeswax Dominic Cram
Many animals in southern Africa feed on beeswax and, by doing so, they help maintain a unique partnership between humans and birds that lead honey-hunters to wild bees’ nests.
Until now, it was thought that very few animals apart from greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) could digest beeswax – a high-energy food that the birds obtain as a reward from humans who break open bees’ nests.
David Lloyd-Jones at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and his colleagues wanted to see if larger animals feeding on …
