Bees buzz into elite group of complex learners

Miami – Entice them with a sweet reward and bumblebees can be trained to roll a ball into a goal, revealing unexpectedly complex learning abilities for an insect, researchers said this week.

The findings in US journal Science offer the first evidence that bees can learn a skill that is not directly related to their typical duties of foraging for food.

Even more, bumblebees appeared to learn best by watching the behaviour of other bees – and sometimes even improved on their predecessors’ techniques.

Until now, the ability to learn how to solve a complex problem by reaching a goal was known to be possible in humans, primates, marine mammals and birds. But insects were not necessarily considered part of this elite group.

“Our study puts the final nail in the coffin of the idea that small brains constrain insects to have limited behavioural flexibility and only simple learning abilities,” said co-author Lars Chittka, who is a professor at Queen Mary University of London’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences.