Bumblebees Show Advanced Problem-solving Skills in New Experiment
jelizondo writes:
CNN published a very interesting article:
German psychologist Wolfgang Kohler set up a famous experiment more than 100 years ago that changed how scientists understand animal intelligence and the power of insight - or spontaneous problem-solving.
Kohler made what he described as a playground for a group of chimpanzees with a banana hanging out of reach and various items - boxes, poles and sticks - lying around. The strewn objects offered opportunities for the animals to explore, and the food presented a challenge for them to unlock. After fruitlessly trying to snatch the banana, the chimps quickly started rearranging the items. The apes eventually stacked the boxes and easily grabbed the reward.
The experiment demonstrated that chimps were capable of insight. While most animals can do basic problem-solving, insight is a step up because it's an understanding of cause and effect that does not rely on trial and error, copying others, or previous knowledge. Scientists have observed this cognitive ability in only a handful of species: great apes, elephants and some birds. There is an ongoing scientific debate over whether even more species - invertebrates such as octopuses and certain spiders - should also join the ranks of the spontaneous problem solvers.
Now, a study published Thursday in the journal Science suggests that bumblebees possess insight. In a lab experiment, the insects were able to roll a plastic foam ball underneath an artificial blue flower, climb over the ball and use it to reach the flower, obtaining a sugary reward. "We showed for the first time that bumblebees can solve a completely novel object-manipulation task, spontaneously and without being trained to do so, or without any trial and error," said lead author Akshaye Bhambore, a doctoral researcher at the University of Oulu in Finland.
Bumblebees can use socially learned behaviors and logical reasoning to solve puzzles, previous studies have shown. In the new experiment, however, the researchers exposed the insects to the separate elements of the task but never trained them on the solution itself.
This result suggests that a tiny insect brain can support surprisingly flexible behavior, according to James Nieh, a professor in the department of ecology, behavior and evolution at the University of California San Diego, who was not involved with the study. "Bees do not normally move objects around to make platforms, so this is not a natural bumble bee behavior," he wrote in an email. "But the experiment shows that they can remember a hidden goal location and manipulate an object in relation to that goal."
This exciting new study shows that insects can learn and change their behavior in ways scientists are only just starting to understand, Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, an associate professor of neuroethology at the University of Exeter in England, said in an email. Hempel de Ibarra was not part of the research. This flexibility could shape how bees and other pollinators interact with flowers, helping them cope with challenges as environments and landscapes change, she added.
Journal Reference: Akshaye A. Bhambore et al., Spontaneous problem-solving in bumble bees, Science, 4 Jun 2026, Vol 392, Issue 6802, pp. 1046-1049 DOI: 10.1126/science.ady1618
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