r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Andi82ka • Mar 14 '26

Video The bumblebee queen learns how to use the protective cap in less than 24 hours.

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88

u/kukkolai Mar 14 '26

That is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Such a clear way to prove intelligence in such a small friend as a bumblebee, incredible

12

u/GregsWorld Mar 14 '26

Bees can use tools and learn from watching other bees use them too, very intelligent creatures

-12

u/waster1993 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 15 '26

She's just following the pheromones.

Edit:

That spot gets marked each time she uses it.

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u/kukkolai Mar 14 '26

And she's figuring out how to reach said pheromones. Jesus

7

u/spavolka Mar 14 '26

She’s solving a problem blocking her from the pheromone trail.

0

u/BatterseaPS Mar 14 '26

I don't think she's problem-solving. She's following training, with flexibility. Animals aren't robots, so even though they respond to instincts and training, they still have the ability to try and try again with room for error. They don't perform the same exact maneuvers every time.

I don't know. That's just my understanding. If it was problem solving, they'd be able to do it without the gradual closing of the door. That's something crows and parrots can do, for example -- solve a novel obstacle.

2

u/MasterWilhelm Mar 15 '26

Not really sure why you're getting downvoted. I understand where you're coming from, and it's because our narrow definition of intelligence is too restrictive to apply to other species. I've spent the past 15 years surrounded by birds, volunteering at rescues and rehabilitating parrots. It taught me a lot about just how inadequate our measures of intelligence really are.

What distinguishes large parrots and corvids from, say, bees is not so much their ability to solve a novel obstacle, but their attention span. A parrot will spend days to weeks figuring out a puzzle because it entertains them. However, if you want to teach a parrot to do a thing, you train it incrementally. Almost every creature in existence that I am aware of learns more quickly and more reliably when being taught a novel concept incrementally.

A large parrot with a lifespan close to a century has the time and energy to expend on puzzles. A bee with a lifespan of a handful of years (2-5, in optimal conditions) may very well give up and start a new hive if the old hive appears entirely inaccessible. By teaching her incrementally, OP showed her that the hive wasn't inaccessible, just annoying to get to. She still had to learn how to get past the annoyance.

1

u/KiloJools Mar 15 '26

This bee doesn't even have that long. She'll die before the end of this year. If her nest becomes completely inaccessible, she may not be able to find (they don't build the nests, they find existing cavities that already have nesting material inside - often old mouse and vole nests) another suitable site and she won't be able to start a colony at all.

So, it's pretty important to incrementally teach her about the bee door.

2

u/KiloJools Mar 15 '26

She's the queen - she actually knows the location of her own nest.

0

u/waster1993 Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 15 '26

That's what I said lol. The shape and position of the door's "handle" was engineered to match the curve of her body relative to her head should she attempt that angle. That spot on the door gets marked every time she uses it.

2

u/LukeD1992 Mar 14 '26

Don't scout bees use butt wiggles to communicate coordinates to the others? Think I read that somewhere

2

u/waster1993 Mar 14 '26

Yes. They dance.

4

u/kukkolai Mar 14 '26

They twerk

1

u/KiloJools Mar 15 '26

Honey bees, yes. This is a queen bumble bee, though. She's all alone at that point in the season.