According to British experts, as reported by the BBC, bumblebees learn how to solve puzzles by watching their more seasoned friends. Queen Mary University of London specialists trained a colony of bees to open a puzzle box with a sugar reward.
The study found that these bees later told their fellow colony members what they had learned.
In contrast to earlier speculation, the researchers discovered that “social learning” may have had a greater influence on bumblebee behaviour.
In order to conduct the experiment, the scientists created a puzzle box that could be opened by rotating a top to retrieve a sugar solution.
The lid could be spun anticlockwise by pushing the red button, and the other way around by pushing the blue tab.
The “observer” bees watched while the scientists trained “demonstrator” bees to utilise one of these techniques to open the lid.
Researchers showed that even after learning about the alternate option, 98% of the time the observer bees used the same strategy they had observed to solve the challenge.
The study also discovered that demonstration bees opened puzzle boxes more frequently than control bees.
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