2017: Goal! Bees can learn ball skills from watching each other, study finds

Goal! Bees can learn ball skills from watching each other, study finds

Nicola Davis

Bumblebees can learn how to manoeuvre a ball just by watching others carry out the task, researchers have discovered in the latest study to shed light on the insects’ surprising talents.

While bees have already been shown to be able to learn how to pull on strings, push caps and even rotate a lever to access food, researchers say the new study shows that bees are better at problem solving than we thought.

“Previous [research] has found that bumblebees can do complex tasks but those tasks have always been really close to natural behaviour,” said Olli Loukola, first author of the research from Queen Mary University of London, pointing out that bees often have to manipulate different parts of a flower to access nectar. “Now we have shown that they can learn something that is totally unnatural, like moving balls.”