Discovered fun with balls: According to a study, bumblebees play for fun.
Unique footage: Bumblebees appear to be playing soccer with small wooden balls.
It is the first time that bumblebees have been filmed playing.
Researchers at Queen Mary University in London have studied the behavior of insects.
They found out that bumblebees actually enjoy playing.
However, these are not the only findings that the study uncovered.
The biologists and behavioral scientists also describe differences between the ways in which bumblebees play.
Depending on their age and gender, the insects devote themselves to the balls differently.
Young bumblebees roll the ball much more often than the older ones.
Male bumblebees move them significantly longer than the female animals.
The researchers deduce from their experiment setup that the wild bees move the balls for entertainment: the animals did not receive any reward after moving the objects. So the bumblebees were motivated by something else to get involved with the balls.
These discoveries create completely new insights into the fascinating little animals:
Behavioral scientist Lars Chittka said:
“Research provides evidence that the minds of these insects are far more sophisticated than we can imagine. There are many animals that play for pleasure. However, most of these are young mammals or birds.”
Source: Queen Mary University London