How Clever Are Bees?
The brain of a bee is about the same size as a sesame seed (Pockley 2001). For this reason, bees are referred to by many as a simple organism. Despite this, bees have a high capacity for learning, memory and completing complex visual tasks. It may surprise you to know that bees have such a high cognitive ability that they are able to learn and distinguish colours, shapes, scents, orientations and symmetry, and learn symbolic cues that allow them to navigate efficiently and accurately (Srinivasan 2010).
Bees use the information that they learn to distinguish between known stimuli and stimuli not yet encountered, and to understand and integrate new environmental cues and objects into their lifestyle (Srinivasan 2010). They can also flexibly incorporate the cues and rules they learn into future situations.
The complexity of their learning and cognition compared to other insects, whilst being less sophisticated than mammals and primates, is believed to be so great due to bee’s natural foraging lifestyle (Chittka & Jensen 2011; Srinivasan 2010).
Move through the links to discover the mechanisms responsible for complex learning and memory in bees, and why these mechanisms evolved.
Bees use the information that they learn to distinguish between known stimuli and stimuli not yet encountered, and to understand and integrate new environmental cues and objects into their lifestyle (Srinivasan 2010). They can also flexibly incorporate the cues and rules they learn into future situations.
The complexity of their learning and cognition compared to other insects, whilst being less sophisticated than mammals and primates, is believed to be so great due to bee’s natural foraging lifestyle (Chittka & Jensen 2011; Srinivasan 2010).
Move through the links to discover the mechanisms responsible for complex learning and memory in bees, and why these mechanisms evolved.