As you may know, bees are dying at an alarming rate. It is reported that they're disappearing at a rate of up to 30 percent a year.
The loss of honeybee hives is worth an estimated $2 billion. The level at which bees are dying was so startling that the first-ever national strategy for improving the health of bees and other key pollinators was begun in 2015.
Did you know that, not only do these insects give us pollination and amazing honey, they're also intelligent enough to learn quickly?
Scientists created an experiment using a fake bee to teach a real bee how to put a ball in a designated circle or hole. After the real bee did this, it was then rewarded with a sweet treat!
Project leader Professor Lars Chittka of Queen Mary University in London's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, said: "Our study puts the final nail in the coffin of the idea that small brains constrain insects to have limited behavioral flexibility and only simple learning abilities."
Not only does the bee learn how to put the ball in the hole, it also then goes to find a friend to teach it how to put the ball in the hole. In the video below, you can see just how fast this process seems to be! Did you ever think to consider that bees can learn, and what possibilities bees might be able to learn?
If you are concerned by the escalating rate that bees are dying at, you can learn more about saving them here.
Please SHARE this interesting discovery with all of your friends and family members on Facebook!
