Honey bees can enjoy pictures

Honey bees are not only able to remember flowers, but they can also distinguish paintings.

Dr. Judith Reinhard, a researcher from the University of Queensland in Australia, and colleagues conducted experiments to test the ability of honey bees to recognize complex images. They teach bees how to distinguish Monet's impressive paintings and the Picasso stereoscopic paintings. Every time the bee distinguishes a picture, they will enjoy the sugar in a hole behind the picture, Science Daily reports.

Honey bees are capable of distinguishing lines, colors and shapes in painting works.

The results showed that the bees learned how to distinguish the 5 pictures of Monet and Picasso at the same time without relying on color, brightness or frequency. When researchers produce paintings of the same art style, honey bees exhibit the ability to select and synthesize the image information characteristic of each art style. From there they can distinguish the paintings of Monet and Picasso.

Reinhard commented that bees have the ability to process image information far beyond the previous thought of humans. Although this animal's brain is quite small, in some respects, its ability to process complex image information is comparable to that of vertebrates. They not only distinguish the scenery, the flowers, the human face and even the lines in the painting.

'Our research shows that humans are not the only species capable of distinguishing different artistic styles. Other insects or animals can also select and classify the characteristics of complex images, " Reinhard said.