Overview
- The paper published Friday in Science reports that roughly 70% of naive Bombus terrestris pushed a lightweight ball under a suspended artificial flower, climbed the ball and accessed a sugar reward.
- Researchers kept bees free of prior training on the solution and separated learning about the ball and the flower to ensure the final action was not directly taught.
- Control tests showed bees moved the ball even when the flower was hidden during movement and a multi-chamber variant was solved by a notable subset, supporting goal-directed object use.
- Statistical analysis found only one clear behavioral predictor of success—how often a bee inspected the flower side of the arena beforehand—so authors stop short of claiming a specific cognitive mechanism.
- The result builds on the Oulu group's earlier bumblebee work and raises broader questions for comparative cognition about how small brains achieve flexible problem solving and what follow-up neural or replication studies should test.