Nonsense is copied from one book to another in this great big world of ours, and a classic case is the story of how Honey Guide birds are supposed to lead Honey Badgers to honey bee nests in Africa.
This "Just So" story is that the Honey Badger or Ratel, smashes open the hives that the bird leads it to, and that the bird then eats the bee larvae -- an interesting story about cooperation across species.
Only one problem: the story is complete nonsense, and the famous bit of video tape showing it was faked.
Of course, that did not stop a bunch of armchair biologists from sucking it down like spaghetti at summer camp.
David Attenborough used the faked video tape in his series about the remarkable lives of birds, the story made its way into Wikipedia and bird books, and the nonsense was further repeated and squawked around the world. And yet, in 400 years of recorded history in Africa, no one has ever actually observed the phenomenon described, and no wonder; badgers are mostly nocturnal and the birds are entirely diurnal!
Read the complete story here. And for those who want to believe, may I suggess this book?
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1 comment:
I'm intrigued that the video referenced on YouTube is a mockumentary. Yes, there is some truth to it, but if one watched from the beginning, there's obviously a spin to it that takes a it a bit further out than Sir Attenborough does.
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