Honeybees are the first invertebrates shown to possess the ability to connect man-made symbols with an actual number value. Previously, the ability has been shown in some apes and birds. In order to test the bees, the team placed them into a corridor that split into 2 directions in front of the bees. There were 2 test groups, one that had been trained to match a character with a number of objects, and a second that had been trained to match a number of objects with a character. When the two groups were reversed, it was found that they were unable to complete the other's task, meaning they were not understanding the the reverse of the association the way apes and birds were able to. Nonetheless, it offers insight into the evolutionary path of reasoning skills over the last several hundred million years.
Dr. Adrian Dyer said "We take it for granted once we've learned our numbers as children, but being able to recognise what '4' represents actually requires a sophisticated level of cognitive ability...But if bees have the capacity to learn something as complex as a human-made symbolic language, this opens up exciting new pathways for future communication across species."
Read more: http://rsci.nl/swq
Image: Gilles San Martin | Flickr