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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent

‘They surprise me every time’: bees can use tools to solve problems, study finds

A bumblebee approaches poppy flowers
‘Some people don’t even realise that they have brains’: the humble bumblebee has impressed researchers with its problem-solving potential. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Bumblebees can use tools to solve a problem, according to experiments that demonstrate their remarkably advanced cognitive abilities.

The bees were given an adapted version of an experiment that, 100 years ago, first demonstrated chimpanzees could work out how to retrieve an out-of-reach banana by stacking boxes. Since then, various other primates, elephants and crows have joined an elite cohort of species known to be capable of this level of insight and spontaneous problem solving.

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