Nature is So Fascinating

by Powderjaggy

The Greater Honeyguide

Photo credit: Francesco Veronesi

"Hello, class. This handsome bird is Cero, and he is a greater honeyguide. He is a male, as you can tell by his pink bill, black throat, and the white patches on his cheeks. Females have a white throat and a brown face.

"He is eating that candle, Yona, but no, there's nothing wrong with him. Most honeyguides feed on beeswax, which bees use to make the honey chambers in their nests, but a wax candle will do, too. They also eat insects, including bees' eggs and larvae.

"Honeyguides have thick skin that gives them a little protection from angry bees, but they can still die from getting too many stings. Usually, they go for nests that aren't being guarded by too many bees. Other times, greater honeyguides get help from other creatures.

"Books often say that greater honeyguides work with honey badgers, but so far nopony has been able to confirm that this actually happens. What we do know is that honeyguides will seek help from ponies who are gathering honey.

"When they find some honey gatherers, a honeyguide will get their attention with a chattering cry, as Cero will now demonstrate. The honeyguide then flies ahead to guide the ponies to a nearby bees' nest. The ponies use smoke to calm the bees and collect the honey, while the honeyguide is free to eat the beeswax that is left behind.

"Other ponies sometimes tell me that they're, um, amazed that I can talk to animals, but I think it's even more amazing that the greater honeyguide is a bird that has learned to talk to ponies. It's a wonderful example of friendship between two species.

"However, honeyguides have relationships with other animals that are not so friendly. Honeyguides don't take care of their own babies, they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, like kingfishers and bee-eaters. A female greater honeyguide can lay up to twenty eggs in one breeding season, leaving each egg in a different nest.

"Because of this, other birds don't like honeyguides much and will attack them on sight. Honeyguides are fast fliers, so they can usually escape, and may even turn around and chase their attackers back. But if a female is caught while laying an egg in another bird's nest, things can, um, end badly for her.

"A young honeyguide hatches with a sharp hook on the end of its beak and, well, this isn't very nice, but it uses this hook to bite and kill all of its foster siblings in the nest. That way, it receives all the food that its foster parents bring. After about five to six weeks, the young honeyguide leaves the nest and is old enough to live on its own.

"Now Cero here never got the chance to meet his foster siblings at all, because I took and raised them myself before he hatched, letting his bee-eater foster parents take care of him without having to lose their own chicks. However, not all bird families who host a baby honeyguide are so fortunate.

"It's not very pleasant, but it's not fair to blame the honeyguides for how they behave. Animals don't always have a choice in what they were born to do. All of us here are very lucky in that we can choose how we treat other creatures.

"Knowing that unavoidable cruelty exists in the world, I hope that you choose to treat others with kindness whenever possible. Have a lovely day, everycreature, and stay kind to each other."

Author's Note:

The greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator) is found in sub-Saharan Africa. In our world, it is of course humans that it partners up with instead of ponies.

Comments

[Perpetually Confused]

Animals are like people, except people are ungrateful and can curse

[Dusty the Royal Janitor]

This is a cute concept

[Starlight Nova]

This story kind of sounds like it needs to be rated M. Why isn't rated M?

[Powderjaggy]

10059039
It's a gray area, I'll admit. I selected the rating for a couple of reasons: I don't plan on going into explicit detail describing violence and reproduction (the general, matter-of-fact statements in this chapter are about as far as it will go), and these acts are described as happening among wildlife instead of completely sapient characters.

I'm happy to bump up the rating if a staff member requests it, but in the end, there shouldn't anything here that would be out of place in a standard nature documentary, general audience animal encyclopedia, or high school biology textbook, and in fact I would contend that this is only a small step up from the panel in the official comics that I'm using as a cover for the story. I realize that everyone has different sensibilities, but I'd think that few people would argue that those works are not suitable for teens.

[Draco Dei]

Image is broken.

[Nitro Indigo]

He is a male, as you can tell by his pink bill, black throat, and the white patches on his cheeks. Females have a white throat and a brown face.

So why did you use a picture of a female?

I like how you're putting morals into this as well. Makes it feel more in-character.

[Thought Prism]

"It's not very pleasant, but it's not fair to blame the honeyguides for how they behave. Animals don't always have a choice in what they were born to do. All of us here are very lucky in that we can choose how we treat other creatures.

"Knowing that unavoidable cruelty exists in the world, I hope that you choose to treat others with kindness whenever possible. Have a lovely day, everycreature, and stay kind to each other."

This is 11/10 Fluttershy characterization.

[Powderjaggy]

10662227
Probably my favorite thing I've written for this story, and I should have saved it for a later chapter because I don't think I can top it.