Bumblebees are more playful than we gave them credit for, a new study suggests.
Scientists in London set up cameras around a specially created miniature arena to film bumblebees and their interaction with small wooden balls.
As the clips show, the bees went out of their way to roll the balls repeatedly, even though there was no apparent incentive to do so.
The adorable footage suggests the insects are “playing” just like humans, and adds to the mounting evidence that bees can have positive “feelings”.
Researchers filmed bumblebees playing with painted wooden balls to answer the question, “Do bumblebees play?”
Scientists from Queen Mary University of London set up cameras around a specially created miniature arena to fill bumblebees and show how they would interact with toy balls
DO ANIMALS PLAY?
Playing is not limited to humans, but is a phenomenon seen in many animal species.
It is believed to contribute to the healthy development and maintenance of an animal’s cognitive and motor skills, which can benefit for example foraging strategies, and is considered an important aspect of animal welfare.
The clearest examples of play come from large-brained mammals and birds, but studies of play in other animals are limited.
Source: Galpayage et al. (2022)
The research paper, titled Do Bumblebees Play?, was published today in Animal Behavior journal.
“It’s certainly mind-blowing, sometimes amusing, to watch bumblebees show something of a game,” said study author Samadi Galpayage of Queen Mary University of London.
“They keep approaching and manipulating these ‘toys’.
“This shows once again that despite their small size and tiny brain, they are more than just small robotic beings.
“They can actually experience positive emotional states, even if they’re rudimentary, like other larger fluffy or not-so-fluffy animals do.”
“These kinds of findings have implications for our understanding of insect sentience and welfare, and will hopefully encourage us to increasingly respect and protect life on Earth.”
For the study, the researchers filmed 45 bumblebees on their way through a specially created “test arena”.
It was designed to give them the option of going to a feeding spot via an unobstructed path or deviating from that path into an area with 18 wooden balls.
A total of 12 of the balls were painted yellow or purple while the remaining six balls were left in their original wood color.
The arena was designed so that bees have the option of going to a feeding ground via an unobstructed path or deviating from that path into areas with wooden balls. Shown here is the experimental setup marked with sucrose (S) and pollen (P).
A total of 12 of the balls were painted yellow or purple, while the remaining six balls were left in their original wood color
According to the team, the repeated ball rolling suggested the act was voluntary and “inherently rewarding” for the bees
Bumblebees feel pain and should be included in animal welfare laws
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have found that bumblebees can feel pain.
In the study, the team showed that bumblebees can alter their response to painful stimuli in ways similar to other animals known to feel pain.
“If insects can feel pain, humans have an ethical obligation not to cause them unnecessary suffering,” said Matilda Gibbons, first author of the study.
“But UK animal welfare laws don’t protect insects – our study shows that perhaps they should.”
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The sex of each bee was also identified (28 females and 17 males) when placed in the arena connected to a nest.
The experiment was run for three hours every day for 18 days before analyzing the video footage.
A total of 910 ball rolling actions of the 45 bumblebees were registered.
Individual bees rolled between one and 44 times on one test day and between one and 117 times over the entire test period.
According to the team, the repeated behavior suggested that ball rolling was voluntary and “inherently rewarding” for the bees.
This was supported by another experiment, in which another 42 bees were trained to find freely moving balls in one of two different colored chambers.
They found that given the choice, the bees preferred the color of the chamber they rolled the balls in.
The study also found that younger bees rolled more balls than older bees, mirroring behavioral patterns seen in mammals, including humans.
Previous research has shown that young children and other juvenile mammals, as well as birds, are the most playful.
Interestingly, male bees rolled the balls longer than their female counterparts – but the researchers insist they were not attempting to mate with the objects.
The research paper, titled Do Bumblebees Play?, was published today in the journal Animal Behavior
“During a mating attempt, male bumblebees position themselves on a female and try to insert their genitals while holding her with their legs,” they explain.
“However, we have never observed male bees everting their genitals while coming into contact with the balls.”
Ball rolling did not contribute to survival strategies, such as foraging, clutter clearing, or mating, and was performed under stress-free conditions, suggesting that the bees were merely playing.
The research builds on previous experiments at Queen Mary University, where bumblebees were taught to score goals by rolling a ball at a target in exchange for a reward.
They had to “kick” a pea-sized ball to score and were given a drop of sweet nectar when they scored.
Bumblebees have a special flight technique that allows them to carry almost their own body weight in nectar
Bumblebees are the heavyweights of the insect world and can fly back to the hive with almost their own body weight in the nectar, a 2020 study found.
US scientists discovered that bees can carry up to 80 percent of their own body weight when flying.
To do this, they can use a special flight technique in “Economy Mode” that allows them to use less energy when carrying heavy loads.
The researchers measured the energy expenditure of bumblebees flying in a specially constructed chamber – an emptied snow globe.
Because bumblebees fuel flight from the nectar they carry, they should lighten up as they fly.
Since they then become lighter, the researchers originally thought that they would have to expend less energy to keep them in the air.
However, the team found that the bees could actually use less energy per unit load when they were more heavily loaded.
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