Bee study reveals they can count and do simple maths
Bees are integral to our way of life – the food we eat, be it honey from the hive to the vegetables they pollinate – but they might be cleverer than we first thought.
Recent studies have shown how bees can count landmarks and even do simple maths to find food.
Dr Elodie Urlacher has spent many years of her life studying bees, as a postgraduate scholar, first in France and then at Otago University, and now as an adviser at the Environment Protection Authority.
Bees had amazing learning memory, Urlacher said. One study had bees fly along a row of four identical miniature tents, spaced apart, with a feeder between the third and fourth.
Then, the number of tents between hive and feeder was altered. Even though many bees looked for the feeder at the same distance they had found it at last time, their estimation of distance depended on landmarks passed.
If the bees encountered more landmarks on their way from the hive to the feeder than they had during training, they tended to travel shorter distances.
If they encountered fewer landmarks, they flew further, showing they had been counting landmarks in order to guess distance.
People found it hard to believe these creatures could be so intelligent, so to make sure they were convinced, there could be no gaps or errors in their studies.
Urlacher had always been interested in animal behaviour.
‘‘And then I discovered it had a name: ecology.’’
She had worked with bee expert Alison Mercer, ONZM, during her time at Otago.
‘‘She was really one of the top scientists in the bee world,’’ Urlacher said. ‘‘It was a pleasure to work with her.’’
Although bee brains were so small, what was learned from them could reveal things about humans. Neuroscience performed on a brain that small required a steady hand, and bees were not even the smallest of their subjects. ‘‘You learn to be less clumsy.’’
Bee brains were ideal for studying – they performed complex tasks, and it was possible to track information as it zapped around the brain.