The bees that can learn like humans

Scientists have long accepted the existence of animal culture, be that tool use in New Caledonian crows, or Japanese macaques washing sweet potatoes.
One thing thought to distinguish human culture is our ability to do things too complex to work out alone - no one could have split the atom or travel into space without relying on the years of iterative advances that came first.
But now, a team of researchers think they’ve observed this phenomenon for the first time outside of humans, in bumblebees.
Read the paper: www.nature.com...

[@polka23dot70]

I noticed their extreme social intelligence several years ago. Some bumblebees tried to force me to help them despite the fact that I was a stranger.

[@smedleyx]

Regarding lifespan vis-a-vis culture, I recently found out that common tarantulas in California can live upwards of twenty years, and so I wouldn't rule out arachnids evolving a culture; they certainly seem far more perceptive than they first appear. I've been treating local insects and arthropods as I would sentient vertebrates, ever since I started interacting with wasps, and their rather astonishing intelligence has been well-documented (Tibbetts et al). Now, it always makes my day to be around and handle stinging insects I once feared. I'm convinced there's something profound soon to be revealed with these invertebrates despite having few "brain" cells.

[@guy9360]

I had for some reason never considerd that animals don't "just know" what to do as they are born, I always found it weird how instincts could produce sometimes quite complicated behaviour - but never thought "maybe it doesn't"

[@badabing3391]

people are learning!!! :DDDD

[@shivang3877]

Bumblebee are smart except when it comes to orchids

[@TT3TT3]

It's a bit outdated to think humans are the only ones....

[@BBeu-i6t]

True, I am happy to see them retelling people, I don’t think it’s sunk in yet

[@CMZneu]

A bunch of animals learn by watching, the video is plain wrong

[@betula-pendula]

​@@CMZneuYes, but did you think, bumblebees are one of them?

[@CMZneu]

@@betula-pendula I have heard it before because some of this info is outdated, bumble bees has been doing tricks in labs for a while lol

[@Captaincapi277]

Well yes some animals are smart but humans in general are smarter

[@CRMcGee2]

Humans are not the only creatures that can solve puzzles. We have examples of dogs, cats, squirrels and birds solving complex puzzles without training.

[@ubqt]

It would be interesting to test if once the learned bee meets other untrained bees in isolation, would those untrained bees be able to solve the puzzle by themselves?

[@hunterG60k]

The history of the study of animal behaviour is the story of us repeatedly underestimating the intelligence and complexity present in other beings. Why do we start from the standpoint that they have none of the qualities that humans have, and then have to fight to prove the existence of those qualities? That smells strongly of religious exceptionalism to me; the more scientific approach - at least since the discovery of evolution by natural selection and then genetic studies that show all life evolved from a common ancestor - would surely be to assume that non human animals would be mostly like us, rather than mostly different?

[@jeffreyjuran9752]

re. a bee's capability to learn and act "it" out: awakening one early morning, under a simple lean-to tarp on a hillside in CO (fifty years ago), a large/chunky bee flew into my space and alighted place to place to place, I would say about four to six times. Projecting my thoughts at the time, and still now - he must have felt "trapped" and/or frustrated in being so, so in order to get out, appeared to reverse all its several steps or pathways that had brought it to that last position under my tarp/lean-to, in reverse order! it seemed to me at the time, and then... flew off. Bon Voyage 🙂 Far from a purely instinctual animal, as so many were thinking of such primitive creatures at the time.

[@--Paws--]

I wonder what other bee or even insect can this research be trained on.

[@un_sir_qui_aime_du_rock]

"THE MUBees" 😂😅

[@rogerio5224]

Or... The humans that can learn like bees. 🤔🤔🤔🐝

[@footfault1941]

It's we who behave like them, to be more precise! They did it before us. That's simple!!

[@SusanAmberBruce]

I don't know, I thought the study was a bit of surface! They didn't talk about the vast communication interface bees have on a chemical level or the hive mind, surely these factors would be part of the whole learning process?

[@ApprendreSansNecessite]

In no part of the video do we see a single bee completing the puzzle from start to finish though

[@NatureVideoChannel]

@5:25😉

[@ApprendreSansNecessite]

​@@NatureVideoChannel I had interpreted it as the bee trained with an interim reward since it first comes out of the sublevel corridor as if it was expecting to find something. It even goes back inside again. It looks like the bee did not compute that the maneuver was meant to remove an obstacle, it just duplicates behaviour like a ritual. Still interesting though

[@czernm20]

Yes, all animals (latin anima, soul) are like humans. They have intelligence.

[@greekmyths8804]

I wouldnt call a coral smart

[@czernm20]

@@greekmyths8804 They all have compasion und undesrtanding: spiders, ants, every animal. There is no exception. Yes, they all have.

[@czernm20]

@@greekmyths8804 They fake their deads sometimes but they live to very last moment. They wouldn't share emotion just like that with everybody. Do you understand me?

[@GiacomodellaSvezia]

Worth a read: "Darwin's unfinished symphony", by Kevin N. Laland

[@footfault1941]

They may say, "congrats human, at last! It took some time to get at we're smarter than appear! More to come!" Yes, new technologies are revealing what have long been in front of us are now brought to our notice with new aspect! More to come!

[@kwokfonglo3686]

Could the learnt traits be "inherited" to next generations thru genes ? (i.e., say, something like we observed in the experiments with E-Coli in late 70's?

[@rabbaniazzahra1784]

now do it with ants, i wanna see an ant university

[@Dan-dy8zp]

By implication, in time, through evolution, our abilities to do things we now accomplished through consciousness could become instinctive, eliminating our need for our current level of intelligence all together.

[@LibertyScott-x6i]

Its better to teach yourself when you can. Social learning- as I have learned- teaches many the wrong thing- as this example illustrates. Working around corrupt people- social learning theory- makes it generational. I prefer to stay away from most people because this culture seems so damn corrupt.

[@stephenleblanc4677]

Neurons are inherently able to "learn." When repeatedly stimulated with exactly the same signal, neurons inherently will diminish their reaction to that signal.

[@LibertyScott-x6i]

It’s a bit dumb to be in a workplace that thinks this learning- HD culture- and computer systems- if you don’t figure something out alone- you must be dumb. Even bee’s can do this. Actually, it’s illegal to use or mess with corporate company computer systems. It’s not intelligence of not learning yourself. I hate this type of culture and thinking.

[@user-ys3in]

Your statement was completely incoherent fyi.

[@albertonorman4814]

'promosm' 🔥