Bee-ing There: Innovative Behavior by Bees - Science and Culture Today

A paper published in the journal Science by a group of scientists in Finland provides new evidence for innovative behavior by bees.1 There has not been significant evidence of problem solving and innovative behavior in insects. This experiment tested whether bumblebees could move a ball to a position where it would enable gaining access to a reward. To achieve this a bee first had to roll the ball into a pit underneath a flower and then climb onto it to access the reward (sucrose). The bee had to recognize that moving the ball underneath the flower was necessary to reach it. The experiment had several different configurations such that the bee was unlikely to be successful by simply moving the ball randomly, but rather involved a level of problem solving.