If there is one peculiarity of the human race, it is its ability to teach its knowledge, to learn from others, and from others to learn about the world around it. Well, that was true a few years ago, before we discovered that the so-called “inferior” species were exactly equal to us on this point. And the examples are numerous and cover a wide spectrum of the animal kingdom.
We thought the bumblebee was incapable of learning
These are Japanese macaques, whose cleaning of sweet potatoes evolved over generations and became more sophisticated each time, as a 2018 study showed. Or pigeons, which refine their flight paths by observing their peers. It is whales and sparrows that learn new songs through contact with members of their group. Or chimpanzees, in which the famous primatologist Jane Goodall was able to identify around forty different patterns of behavior, from tool use to nest building to courtship rituals.
The most recent example in insects: the bumblebee, an animal with such a small brain, barely 0.0005% that of a chimpanzee, that it was not considered capable of learning. The British team has just proven the opposite and published the results of their experiment on the pages of the journal Nature.
Bumblebees who learn by observing their peers
Scientists placed bumblebees in a puzzle box. The goal of the maneuver was for the animal to push the first barrier, which unlocked the second, which it had to push in turn to get to the sweet reward. Unfortunately, of the three insect colonies tested, no bumblebee managed to unlock the mechanism.
Then, after a long and careful learning process, the scientists were able to teach 9 of their winged guinea pigs to solve the puzzle.
These demonstrators were then placed back in the box in the company of the fledgling drone. Out of 15 naive insects, the researchers were able to observe that 5 of them learned the task by themselves by observing the bumblebee demonstration. Evidence that these animals can demonstrate real social learning.
A trained bumblebee and a beginner bumblebee who examines it to solve the puzzle. Credits: Queen Mary University of London
One of the dogmas of human specificity has indeed fallen.