Can Bees Learn to Play Soccer?

A groundbreaking study published in the prestigious Science journal reveals: bees can learn to play soccer.

Researchers from QMUL embarked on the study with the assumption that animals whose natural lifestyles require learning skills could also learn entirely new behaviors. Previous research showed bees could solve various cognitive challenges, but these studies focused on tasks similar to what bees naturally do to find nectar – like pulling a string to get food.

This time, the researchers aimed to test whether bees could learn behaviors entirely unnatural to insects.

"We wanted to explore the cognitive limits of bees by examining whether they could use objects not found in nature to complete a task no bee in history had ever done," explained Dr. Clint Perry, the lead researcher.

The experiment designed by the researchers required the bees to move a ball to a specific point to earn a sugar reward: a sort of soccer game. Initially, the bees were trained to recognize the desired ball location, and then they had to move a ball from another point to the desired spot. Only upon completing this task were they rewarded with sugar.

To teach the bees to 'score goals' in this way, they were divided into three groups. One group watched a previously trained bee move the ball to the correct spot and receive a treat. The second group saw the ball move to the right place thanks to a magnet under the surface, and the third group received no demonstration but found the ball already in the correct place, alongside the treat. The first group, which observed a live demonstration by a bee, learned most quickly what they needed to do.

However, the bees weren't just mimicking the first bee: the researchers were surprised to find they could think independently. In the demonstration watched by the bees, the trained bee moved the furthest ball on the surface to the correct place, even though there were closer balls. When performing the task themselves, the bees moved the nearest balls to the right location, indicating they deduced they could achieve the reward with less effort.

What does this experiment tell us, and should we start planning an insect olympics? "This experiment finally puts to rest the idea that insects are only capable of very simple learning abilities," the researchers state. "However, it is likely they would only be motivated to solve complex tasks if subjected to environmental pressures, like those applied in the experiment."