Bees learn football from their buddies

Yes you read it right it is the title of the new research article published in scientific journal Science on 23 feb 2017.

Olli J. Loukola ,Clint J. Perry and co-authors of Queen Mary University of London found that bumblebees(Bombus terrestris)learned social skills from there instructor bees.

Bumblebees watched a companion bee hauling a ball into a goal, which earned the companion bee a gasp of sugar water. The observing bees could soon do the task by themselves. They even figured out how to clutch the reward with less effort.

Olli Loukola of Queen Mary University of London study co-author said

“They’re not just blindly copying. They’re doing something better,”

https://gfycat.com/gifs/search/@naturegkb/detail/TenderSpottedBluegill

Loukola and his colleagues gave drill to a select group of buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) to move a wooden ball to the centre of a platform to earn a sweet treat. These bees then sweep their stuff while observed by test bees. After three observation sessions, a test bee was allowed to control the ball. They achieved their goal almost every time, signifying that they had picked up on social cues while watching the trained bees. Bees without the benefit of instruction scored around 30% of the time.

The researchers presented each instructor bee with three balls. Two had been glued in place and only one the farthest from the goal rolled freely. The instructors bee hauled that one to the goal. Test bees watched these sessions and were then presented with three freely rolling balls. Instead of copying the instructors by moving the farthest ball, test bees took the easy way out they moved the closest one.

Study co-author Clint Perry, a cognitive neuroethologist at Queen Mary pointed out that

Bees tutored by a fellow insect outperformed bees without role model. One group watched as the ball was moved by a magnet, and another group was given no demonstration at all. “Social information helped tremendously,”

She also stated that

“It really pushes the idea that small brains aren’t necessarily simpler,” Perry says. “These miniature brains can accomplish a lot more than we thought.”

Sources

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6327/833

http://www.nature.com/news/bees-learn-football-from-their-buddies-1.21540