Interesting discovery: Bees 'shake hands' with each other to play with Lego

Research shows that bees' intelligence is even beyond what we think.

Science has documented that bees know how to cooperate to solve problems they encounter, but do their tiny brains play a role in this teamwork, or is it simply an innate behavior?

To find out, researchers in Finland let bumblebees play with Lego - one of the world's most popular toys.

Bees play with Lego in research by Finnish scientists - (Photo: OLLI LOUKOLA).

Olli Loukola, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Oulu, said they were surprised by how the bees took into account the movements of another bee, then coordinated their movements during the interaction. with Lego bricks. This action demonstrates the incredible social intelligence of bees.

In addition to the Lego task, the researchers also created another challenge for the bee group. They let them touch a transparent door at the end of the tunnel to access the nectar.

They found that the first bee to reach the door was more likely to turn away if its "teammate" was left behind, and it only moved toward the door when it saw its "teammate" was going in the right direction.

"This study shows that the complex cooperative behavior of social insects can go beyond innate or hard-wired abilities. They are even capable of learning behaviors typically associated with animals such as apes. adults and dolphins ," said James Dorey, a biological scientist in Australia who was not involved in the study.

Scientists say further research will be needed to find out exactly what bumblebees pay attention to during cooperative tasks, and how well they understand the roles of each other. However, in general, research has contributed to confirming the intelligence of bees, even beyond what we often mention.

The research findings also help people better understand bumblebee behavior, thereby applying it to fields such as robotics and agriculture.

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society on May 1.