• Health
  • Science
  • U.S.
  • Technology
  • Business
  • World
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

Building a Better World

News and information

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team

Amazing study: Bees are much more clever than you think

October 6, 2016 By Jenny Marchal

Amazing study: Bees are much more clever than you think

The bees were not only able to learn the skill but go on to teach the skill to other bees in their colony.

We don’t tend to consider bees as being highly intelligent especially when we’re trying to swot them away on a hot summer’s day. But scientists from the UK have managed to prove just how clever they are by training bumblebees to pull strings in order to get food. Not only that but then go off and teach the trick to other bees in their colony.

The team of researchers from Queen Mary University in London took an experiment that is typically used to test primates and birds. The idea that learning and teaching is just confines to humans is fast becoming fiction now that many other species of animals and insects are portraying the ability to absorb and utilize knowledge despite having small brains.

The team trained 23 bees out of a group of 40, to pull strings with their legs and feet. To do this they attached discs with food at the center to pieces of string, positioning them under a transparent screen. Once the bees detected the food, they learned from the researchers that they had to pull the string in order to reach the food.

Another group of bees then watched the bees carry out the task and astonishingly 60 percent were able to understand what was needed in order to get to the food. Once back in the colony, the trained bees were able to pass on the skill to others.

While this is astonishingly clever for a bee, the team are primarily interested in how bees are able to do this while possessing such tiny brains and how their brain processes work.

“How can they do it with such small brains, and how can their miniature nervous systems manage such a diversity of behaviors and cognitive tasks?” stated Prof. Lars Chittka who supervised the study.

Details of the study were published in the journal PLoS Biology.

Sharing

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Filed Under: Front Page, Science

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Us

Facebookrss

Search:

Recent Posts

  • NASA’s InSight spacecraft makes important course correction May 26, 2018
  • Scientists outraged at latest Trump decision May 15, 2018
  • Huge uproar erupts over major incident at Utah park May 13, 2018
  • Incredible moon discovery stuns scientists May 12, 2018
  • Authorities shocked by discovery about common painkiller May 6, 2018
  • Outrageous crocodile experiment stuns scientists May 5, 2018
  • Great Barrier Reef is too quiet, scientists say May 1, 2018
  • Massive Hiroshima bomb discovery shocks scientists May 1, 2018
  • Earth will be slammed by massive asteroid April 29, 2018
  • Teens are doing something incredibly alarming in schools April 29, 2018
  • Huge discovery in Tasmania stuns scientists April 28, 2018
  • Shocking discovery in New Jersey stuns authorities April 22, 2018
  • Huge volcanic explosion could wipe out the United States April 21, 2018
  • Huge controversy erupts over world’s hottest pepper April 15, 2018
  • SpaceX is about to do something astonishing April 15, 2018

Copyright © 2022 Jones Kilmartin Group, LLC · Metro Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress