Bumble bees have demonstrated an impressive ability that scientists once believed was limited to humans and other animals with much larger brains. In a new study, the insects successfully completed a completely unfamiliar object manipulation task despite never being taught how to solve it.
The findings challenge a long-standing belief that spontaneous problem solving is unique to humans and other large-brained vertebrates.
More than a century ago, psychologist Wolfgang Köhler showed that chimpanzees could suddenly solve unfamiliar problems by combining objects in new ways, such as stacking boxes to reach a banana hanging overhead. Those experiments became classic examples of insight and spontaneous problem solving in animals.
Now, researchers from the University of Oulu, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Turku in Finland have found comparable abilities in bumble bees.
Bumble Bees Solved a Novel Challenge
