How Do Bees Retain Their Flight Paths?

German scientists have shown that honey bees tend to find their way home along roads, field edges and other landmarks.

They published the results of the study in the scientific journal Frontiers.

“We have shown that honey bees use a kind of mental map to return to the hive from an area that has not yet been explored,” explained Dr. Randolph Menzel, professor of neurology at the University of Berlin.

Menzel and his colleagues caught 50 bees, attached transceivers to their backs and sent them away from the “home”. The scientists tracked the flight path of each bee for 3 hours.

“Based on the data presented here, we concluded that the features of linear natural objects, such as water channels, roads, and field edges, are important components of the navigational memory of bees. According to them, these insects remember the way home, ”the doctor said.

Scientists also found that bees retain information about the location of channels and other landmarks. It turned out that these channels guided the insects when studying the terrain, while being at a distance of more than 30 meters from them, which exceeds the limits of the bees’ vision. The AI ​​algorithms showed that irrigation canals were most useful in predicting the departure of bees from hives A and B. This is because the bees relied on memorizing the landscape around their home hive to find their way to the hive.

Source: Linta. EN