‘Bees use logic to find best flowers’
Despite their tiny brains, bumblebees are smart enough to pick out the most attractive flowers by watching other bees and learning from their behaviour, a new study has found.
By using simple logic, bumblebees see which coloured flowers are the most popular and conclude that those of the same colour must also contain lots of energy-rich nectar.
“Learning where to find nectar by watching others seems fantastically complex for a tiny bee, but it’s something that almost any animal could do, in the right circumstances,” said Dr Elli Leadbeater at Queen Mary, University of London and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
Most worker bees visit thousands of flowers every day in their search for nectar to feed their queen’s brood. Copying flower colour choices may be a shortcut to success, bypassing the exhausting process of exploring each flower to see if it contains hidden rewards.
Tests were carried out in wooden laboratory “flight arenas” stocked with artificial flowers. Bees were trained to know that sugar could be found on flowers where other foragers were present, according to the study published in the Current Biology journal. The bees then watched through a screen as their companions chose a particular flower colour and ignored another. When later allowed to choose a flower colour alone, the test revealed bees copied their companions’ choices.
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