A surprising number of African animals eat beeswax

Honeyguide birds lead humans to bees’ nests and get beeswax as a reward, but camera traps reveal that honey badgers, baboons and mongooses all feed on the leftovers

By Ryan Truscott

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 …