Bumblebees enjoy “playtime” in world’s first study

Bumblebees play, according to a new study led by Queen Mary University of London, published in animal behavior. It’s the first time object play behavior has been demonstrated in an insect, adding to the mounting evidence that bees can have positive “feelings”.

The research team ran numerous experiments to test their hypothesis, which showed that bumblebees went out of their way to keep rolling wooden balls despite no apparent incentive to do so. Three videos of the playing bees are available in the Editor’s Notes below.

The study also found that younger bees rolled more balls than older bees, reflecting the human behavior of young children and other juvenile mammals and birds who are most playful, and that male bees rolled them longer than their female counterparts.

The study tracked 45 bumblebees in an arena and gave them the option to follow an unobstructed path to a feeding site or deviate from that path into the wooden ball areas. Individual bees rolled balls between 1 and an impressive 117 times during the experiment. The repeated behavior indicated that ball rolling was rewarding.

This was supported by another experiment in which another 42 bees were given access to two colored chambers, one with ever-moving balls and one with no objects. When tested and given a choice between the two chambers that contained no balls, the bees showed a preference for the color of the chamber previously associated with the wooden balls. The design of the experiments eliminated any notion that the bees were moving the balls for a higher purpose than play. Ball rolling did not contribute to survival strategies such as g., food acquisition, clutter clearing, or mating, and was conducted under stress-free conditions.

The research builds on previous experiments from the same Queen Mary lab, which showed that bumblebees can be taught to score by rolling a ball at a target and given a sugary food reward for doing so. During the previous experiment, the team observed bumble bees rolling balls outside of the experiment without receiving a food reward. The new research showed that the bees repeatedly rolled balls without being trained or given food in return – it was voluntary and spontaneous – and therefore similar to the playing behavior observed in other animals.

The study’s first author, Samadi Galpayage, a PhD student at Queen Mary University of London, said: “It’s certainly overwhelming, sometimes amusing, to watch bumblebees perform something of a game. Again and again they approach and manipulate these “toys”. It shows once again that despite their small size and tiny brain, they are more than just little robotic beings. They can actually experience positive emotional states, even if they are rudimentary, like other larger fluffy or not-so-fluffy animals do. This kind of insight has implications for our understanding of insect sentience and welfare, and will hopefully encourage us to increasingly respect and protect life on Earth.”

Professor Lars Chittka, Professor of Sensory and Behavioral Ecology at Queen Mary University of London, leader of the lab and author of the recent book The Mind of a Bee, said: “This research provides strong evidence that the mind of Insects far more demanding than we can imagine. There are many animals that play just for fun, but most examples come from young mammals and birds.

“We’re producing more and more evidence that we must do what we can to protect insects that are a million miles from the mindless, unfeeling creatures they’ve traditionally been thought to be.”