The tualang (Koompassia excelsa) is one of the tallest trees in tropical Asia. It usually grows to between 45 and 80 metres, and the tallest specimens measured in Borneo, where it is known as tapang, exceed 85 metres. Its smooth, pale trunk often does not branch until around 30 metres up. The bark is said to be so slippery that even the sun bear, a keen honey thief, cannot climb it.

That is exactly why the giant honey bee, Apis dorsata, favours it. Unlike the western honey bee it does not nest in a cavity: it hangs a single open comb, up to about a metre wide, beneath a branch and covers it with several layers of its own bodies – a living curtain. Many colonies may gather in one tree; some observers have counted up to two hundred. When a hornet approaches, a wave ripples across the curtain as the bees flick up their abdomens in rapid sequence. This 'shimmering' deters predators; larger intruders such as birds may provoke a mass attack.

Bees on the move

Giant honey bees do not stay put. A colony typically occupies a nest site for three or four months and then moves on in search of flowering trees; in Borneo their numbers surge in the years when the dipterocarp forest flowers en masse. A study published in Nature in 2000 showed that colonies can return to the very same site after a seasonal migration, even though the workers live too briefly ever to have been there before. Experiments in China suggest that remnants of old comb may help them find it.

The night harvest

Tualang honey is gathered by groups of villagers in remote stretches of forest, such as Ulu Muda in the north of the Malay Peninsula. The work is done at night. The hunters twist vine roots into a slow-smouldering torch and climb into the crown with it. At the nest they strike the torch against the trunk; sparks shower down and the bees chase the glowing points into the darkness. That gives the hunters a few moments to cut away slabs of comb and drop them into a bucket. According to an AFP report, one team worked its way round the nests all night, stopping just before dawn with 43 kilograms of honey. The haul is shared equally. Stings are routine, though the hunters say they know of no one who has died.

The tree nobody fells

Tualang wood is medium-heavy and usable, but the honey in its crown is worth more than the timber. In parts of Sarawak felling these trees is traditionally taboo, and only trunks brought down by storms are used. Tualang honey, incidentally, is not honey from tualang flowers: the tree is simply a safe place to nest, and the bees forage far and wide. It is a mixed forest honey whose flavour and colour change with whatever happens to be in bloom.

Sources

  1. National Parks Board Singapore, Flora & Fauna Web: Koompassia excelsa
  2. FAO: Honeybees of the genus Apis (Apis dorsata)
  3. Neumann et al. (2000): Home-site fidelity in migratory honeybees, Nature
  4. Kastberger et al. (2009): Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets (Naturwissenschaften)
  5. AFP / Malay Mail: Malaysia's honey hunters defy angry bees to harvest treetop treasure (2018)