Recently, scientists set out to prove just how smart bumblebees are. And since they couldn’t simply give them a multiple-choice test, they instead set up a bumblebee-sized obstacle course designed to fool the insects. The results? They discovered that bees may have problem-solving abilities similar to those of big-brained vertebrates. A study recently published in Science found bumblebees are even more cognitively advanced than we realized.
One of the highest signs of cognitive performance is the ability to spontaneously solve a problem—essentially being able to improvise and think on your feet. Until now, we didn’t know bumblebees could similarly think on the fly.
While scientists only recently learned bumblebees can count and have a sense of rhythm, spontaneous problem-solving is not something we’ve seen insects do.
Researchers put the bumblebees through a series of tests
“Spontaneous problem-solving is something that has never been shown in any invertebrate before,” study author Olli Loukola told ScienceNews.
This novel study was designed to test if bees actually did have this ability, and the results were incredible. Researchers set up a series of tasks to see if bees were able to creatively solve problems on the fly—and earn a sweet treat.
“I planned the experiment so that it’s challenging for the bees,” Loukola told NPR. “They really need to understand the task in order to solve it.”
To test the bees’ brains, researchers taught the insects that a ball is a moveable object and that a blue ring represents a flower, so the bees associated it as source of food. The bees were then placed in a small plexiglass enclosure containing the balls, with rings printed on the ceiling in a position unreachable to the bees. What researchers observed next was remarkable.
Since the size of the container didn’t allow for flight, the bees quickly learned that rolling the foam ball was the only way they could get their sugary reward. The workaround was swift, showing immediate problem-solving skills.
“Bumblebees, they love rolling balls,” Loukola told NPR. “Some of them needed more time and made more errors. But then they continued.”
A previous study published in Animal Behaviour in 2022 confirms bumblebees do, in fact, love rolling balls. It may even be a form of play for them. Watch that experiment here:
They passed with flying colors
Almost 75 percent of the insects in the study, each of which have a brain the size of a sesame seed—were able to solve these puzzles in a way that reflects the cognitive abilities of big-brained mammals like chimpanzees, birds, or elephants.
Watch how the bees reach the blue dot in this video:
“What makes this behavior especially remarkable is that the bees had never been trained to roll the ball,” lead study author Akshaye Bhambore from the University of Oulu told Refractor. “This was a completely new challenge. Their behavior appeared goal-directed, with successful individuals showing more directed movement patterns.”
Another novel part of the challenge: the bees had never completed an experiment with similar solutions. And, to prove this wasn’t a fluke, researchers created a multi-step puzzle for the bees to solve. During this task, bees had to first locate the hidden flower, then navigate a ball around a barrier and through a small opening to be able to access the treat. This time, 80 percent completed the task.
While we often think of bees working together in a hive to create honey, it turns out they can problem-solve just fine on their own. This may equip them to more easily access food sources, even in areas where environmental conditions change. As the bee population becomes increasingly at-risk, this becomes especially important. Up to 95 percent of flowering species depend on them for survival.
For now, researchers say this problem-solving ability doesn’t equate bees to the same brain function as humans. But what it does prove is that we have a long way to go in understanding just how smart all insects, which make up about 80 percent of the world’s species, are.
