Scientists abuzz over success in teaching bees to play football
Second group that learnt from the first improved the game
LONDON // Using sweet treats and months of patient coaching, scientists in England have taught a group of bumblebees how to play football.
In an 18-month study at Queen Mary University of London, scientists trained 50 bees to move a small yellow ball to a circled spot to score a goal and receive a sugary food reward.
The first group of bees then showed others in the colony how to play, with the second group impressing scientists by expanding the game.
“The bees solved the task in a different way than what was demonstrated, suggesting that observer bees did not simply copy what they saw but improved on it,” said Dr Olli Loukola, a behavioural ecologist and one of the study’s leaders. “This shows an impressive amount of cognitive flexibility, especially for an insect.”
Their sporting prowess follows a study last year in which the scientists taught bees to pull strings to get food and then relay what they learnt to others.
Prof Lars Chittka, a co-author of the recent study, said it had taken months to teach the first bees to play football but the sec- ond group picked up the game from their colony peers within 30 minutes.
He said there would be further studies to better understand how an insect with a brain the size of a pinhead could learn so much.
“Our study puts the final nail in the coffin of the idea that small brains constrain insects to have limited behavioural flexibility,” said Prof Chittka.