Bumble Bees Possibly Showing Emotion

A study was done with bumble bees and wooden balls, and revealed that the

bees rolled around the wooden balls solely for entertainment purposes. This finding

supported the theory that bees can experience pleasure. Playing in animals helps the

development of the brain. Playing in insects was once looked at in wasps, but further

research is being conducted on whether insects do in fact play. In the study, bees were

given wooden balls and were trained to move them by getting rewarded with a sugary

item. However, the researchers noticed that the bees were moving the balls even

without receiving a reward. It was said that the bees just simply enjoyed rolling the

wooden balls all over the place.

The researchers set up a “single-story apartment” for the bees, containing a

recreation center where the experiment took place and a cafeteria, where pollen and

sugar water was located. Two experiments were conducted in this space. In the first

experiment, bees were in the recreation room with immobilized balls and balls that could

move. It was noted that they preferred balls that moved, meaning that bees like

movement, not just round objects. During the experiment it was found that bees would

roll the wooden balls up to 44 times a day, implying that they enjoy the activity of

moving the balls around. In the second experiment, two chambers were given, a yellow

chamber containing the balls, and a blue chamber without the presence of any balls.

The bees were then given a choice to enter a yellow or blue passageway without seeing

any of the balls. Because the bumble bees were trained to associate yellow with the

presence of balls, the majority of the bees chose the yellow passageway. This

presumed that they chose it because they associated yellow with the enjoyment of

rolling the yellow balls.

The study also conveyed results that younger bees were more likely to roll balls

than older bees. This connects to play behavior in animals, since younger animals tend

to play more. Researchers believe that play can strengthen neural connections that may

be involved with muscle coordination. This led to further research on the theory of

whether ball rolling can improve the ability of bees to effectively harvest nectar from

flowers. To be able to conclude the idea that bees play due to the ability to experience

emotion, further research with more examples of play would be needed to support the

theory. If bees are truly playing, it is not yet sure whether they do it in the wild.

Researchers stated that they may be playing in a protected environment due to a lack of

predators and access to food, and time for luxury which may allow them the time to roll

around objects for fun.

Posted by: Haya Usmani (9)

https://www.science.org/content/article/are-these-bumble-bees-playing-toys