Bumblebees have demonstrated the ability to use tools to solve problems, according to new research that challenges long-held assumptions about insect intelligence. The study, published in the journal Science, shows that bees can learn to roll a ball to a specific location and climb on top of it to reach a reward.
The experiment was an insect version of the classic 'box-and-banana' problem, first used 100 years ago to test chimpanzees' problem-solving abilities. In the bee version, a blue artificial flower containing sugar water was placed on the ceiling of a transparent chamber, too high for the bees to reach. A small polystyrene ball was introduced, and the bees had to roll it under the flower and climb onto it to access the reward.
In the most basic version, 75% of the bees succeeded. To rule out the possibility that the bees were simply enjoying rolling the ball or were attracted to the blue flower, the researchers made the task more complex. In the final setup, bees had to remember the location of the flower (which was hidden under red light) and position the ball beneath it. Twenty-three out of 30 bees were successful.
Dr Olli Loukola, a behavioural ecologist at the University of Oulu in Finland and senior author of the study, said: 'We are not claiming that bees think like humans, but our findings show that miniature brains can generate flexible solutions to novel problems in ways we are only beginning to understand.'
Professor Lars Chittka, a behavioural ecologist at Queen Mary University of London and author of The Mind of a Bee, who was not involved in the research, said: 'This is the clearest demonstration yet of some kind of comprehension of what's at stake. Bees are a model of how much intelligence you can squeeze into a small nervous system.'
