Photo by Pieter Haringsma, Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Bumblebees play and get a buzz out of it, according to scientists. It is the first time that object play behaviour has been shown in an insect, adding to mounting evidence that bees may experience positive 'feelings', according to the new research published in the journal Animal Behaviour.
The team of researchers set up various experiments to test their theory, which showed that bumble bees went out of their way to roll wooden balls repeatedly - despite there being no apparent incentive for doing so.
The study also found that younger bees rolled more balls than older bees, mirroring human behaviour of young children and other juvenile mammals and birds being the most playful, and that male bees rolled them for longer than their female counterparts.
The study followed 45 bumble bees in an arena and gave them the options of walking through an unobstructed path to reach a feeding area or deviating from this path into the areas with wooden balls. Individual bees rolled balls between 1 and, impressively, 117 times over the experiment. The repeated behaviour suggested that ball-rolling was rewarding.
It is certainly mind-blowing...to watch bumble bees show something like play
The research builds on previous experiments from the same lab at Queen Mary, which showed that bumble bees can be taught to score a goal, by rolling a ball to a target, in exchange for a sugary food reward. During the previous experiment, the team observed that bumble bees rolled balls outside of the experiment, without getting any food reward. The latest research showed the bees rolling balls repeatedly without being trained and without receiving any food for doing so -- it was voluntary and spontaneous -- therefore akin to play behaviour as seen in other animals.
‘It is certainly mind-blowing, at times amusing, to watch bumble bees show something like play,’ says study author, Samadi Galpayage at Queen Mary University of London. ‘They approach and manipulate these 'toys' again and again. It goes to show, once more, that despite their little size and tiny brains, they are more than small robotic beings. They may actually experience some kind of positive emotional states, even if rudimentary, like other larger fluffy, or not so fluffy, animals do. This sort of finding has implications to our understanding of sentience and welfare of insects and will, hopefully, encourage us to respect and protect life on Earth ever more.’
Insect minds are far more sophisticated than we might imagine
Professor Lars Chittka, Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology at Queen Mary University of London and author 'The Mind of a Bee' agrees. ‘This research provides a strong indication that insect minds are far more sophisticated than we might imagine. There are lots of animals who play just for the purposes of enjoyment, but most examples come from young mammals and birds.
‘We are producing ever-increasing amounts of evidence backing up the need to do all we can to protect insects that are a million miles from the mindless, unfeeling creatures they are traditionally believed to be.’