True Facts: Bees That Play With Balls And Do Math!

Thanks you:
Dr Lars Chittka, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Martin Giurfa, Sorbonne University
Dr Charles Abramson, Oklahoma State University
Dr Tom Seeley, Cornell University
Dr Joanna Brebner, CRCA, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, CNRS, France
Dr Hiruni Samadi Galpayage Dona, Università di Trento
Dr Charles Walcott, Cornell University
Dr Constance Blary, University of Montpellier
Patrick Sainton
TIB

Galpayage Dona, Hiruni Samadi. Cwyn Solvi, Amelia Kowalewska, Kaarle Mäkelä, HaDi MaBouDi, Lars Chittka,

Giovanetti, Manuela & Aronne, Giovanna. (2013). Honey bee handling behaviour on the papilionate flower of Robinia pseudoacacia L. Arthropod-Plant Interactions. 7. 10.1007/s11829-012-9227-y.

Howard SR, Greentree J, Avarguès-Weber A, Garcia JE, Greentree AD and Dyer AG (2022) Numerosity Categorization by Parity in an Insect and Simple Neural Network. Front. Ecol. Evol. 10:805385. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2022.805385

Muth F, Papaj DR, Leonard AS. Colour learning when foraging for nectar and pollen: bees learn two colours at once. Biol Lett. 2015 Sep;11(9):20150628. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0628. Erratum in: Biol Lett. 2015 Oct;11(10). pii: 20150841. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0841.

Serres, J. R., Morice, A. H., Blary, C., Miot, R., Montagne, G., & Ruffier, F. (2022). Floor and ceiling mirror configurations to study altitude control in honeybees. Biology Letters, 18(3), 20210534.

Skorupski P, MaBouDi H, Galpayage Dona HS, Chittka L. Counting insects. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2017 Feb 19;373(1740):20160513. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0513.

[andrewhall]

It sounds like you could train 2 teams of bees to score goals in different colored nets and give them 1 ball to see a game of bee-soccer

[lu-cipher]

"They're learning, but they're not quite getting the full picture" is me at university

[colorbugoriginals]

"What do you do for a living?"
"I train bees."

[patriot]

I've been a beekeeper for about 5 years now, my second year doing it I started to realize how intelligent they actually were. I would feed them sugar water when they were low on honey reserves. If they were out of sugar water they would come to my house which was about .25 of a mile away and look for me and they would buzz all around me. If one one would sting me and realize it's me, they would spin in a circle to get the stinger out instead of releasing the venom and killing themselves. Honeybees are truly fascinating.

[kennyp]

'damn bees and their metric system. think theyre sooo smart' -inch worms

[lcgivu]

Bees are so smart they don’t even know

[CosmicSphincter]

I like how everyone’s love of bees only gets more justified over time.

They’re important to the environment, cute, and smart. Such lovely animals.

[weeb]

imagine being so sadistic as to glue a ball that bees like to play with

[DanGamingFan]

I just find it so cute and hilarious that bees will stop whatever they're doing to play with balls. And it's honestly impressive what smart, fast learners they are for an insect.

[russellwhitmyer]

The bee brain is small but has excellent Firmware.

[Nana-pwix]

As a prior beekeeper I was astonished by how smart and organised bees are! My African honey bees could recognise me even if I was wearing a cap, sunglasses or a different hairstyle. I was the only person who could walk up and down past the beehive and cut the grass in the area without them reacting. If anyone else came within eye sight they would get aggressive and very defensive. This means they passed knowledge of me being their safe person to multiple generations during the years I tended the beehive.

[rogerlafaille]

The metric system even adopted by the bees shows how superior it is.

[MM-sxzs]

Bees having an understanding of the concept of zero is actually really cool

[Warppnt]

Not only do I have to worry about bees being attracted to my food and drink at a BBQ, now I have to cover my balls too?!

[westminsterabbey.]

“It flew like three feet and found a shoe” took me out 🤣

[MerryMac]

Learning that bee's cannot help themselves when they see a ball and have to play with it is the most wholesome thing I've heard in a while. Bee's are just the best.

[appletree]

I love how there are people that get paid to put bees in a box and make them watch you push a tiny ball with a ear cleaner that is painted to look like a bee

[vlionheart]

Imagine being kidnapped by giants just so they can force you to attend classes on puzzle solving

[GordonAu]

And the waggle dance also accounts for the *movement of the sun*, with its angle shifting appropriately as time passes. Freakin' amazing. Great episode!

[unrealed]

We're gonna need an extremely extended version of "Bees Love Balls", btw