In the Sundarbans, a honey hunt can begin with a small movement in the sky.

As the tide shifts through the mangrove creeks, the mouals (traditional honey collectors of the delta) watch for giant wild honeybees flying towards flowering keora, goran or khalsi trees. To them, a stream of bees often means one thing: honey lies somewhere ahead.

To the mouals, it is information. For generations, they have followed these invisible routes, trusting that bees know where abundance lies. 

But long before the mouals follow the bees through the forest, a message has already passed inside the hive. The bees have shared the route through dance. 

Science calls it the waggle dance.

It is one of the most sophisticated communication systems in the animal world, a coded figure-eight movement through which honeybees tell each other where food and water can be found.

How a bee turns food into directions

When a forager bee discovers a rich patch of flowers or a water source, she returns to the hive with more than nectar.

She returns with directions.

Inside the dark honeycomb, she begins moving in a figure-eight pattern. At the centre of this movement, she runs in a straight line and rapidly shakes her abdomen. This is the most important part of the message. 

That straight line is the message. Its angle tells her nestmates where to go.

The angle of this straight run tells the........

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