Culture refers to behaviors that are socially learned and persist within a group over long periods of time. Growing evidence suggests that animal culture, like human culture, may be cumulative. However, the accumulated culture of humans contains behaviors so complex that they exceed the ability of individuals to discover them independently over a lifetime. New research shows that the buff-tailed bumblebee (Western bumblebee) can learn how to open new two-step puzzle boxes and obtain food from trained conspecifics, even if they fail to open them independently.
Bufftail Bumblebee (Western bumblebee) socially learn behaviors that are too complex to innovate alone. Image credit: Ralphs Fotos.
“This groundbreaking research opens new avenues for understanding the evolution of intelligence and social learning in animals,” said study lead author Lars, a researcher at Queen Mary University of London. Professor Chitka said.
“This challenges long-held assumptions, paves the way to further explore the cognitive wonders hidden in the insect world, and even suggests the exciting possibility of accumulated culture among seemingly simple creatures. Masu.”
Professor Chitka and his colleagues designed a two-step puzzle box that required bumblebees to perform two different actions in sequence to access a sweet reward at the end.
Training bees to do this was no easy task, and we had to help them by adding additional rewards along the way.
This temporary reward was eventually taken away, and the bees were forced to open the entire box before getting the treat.
Surprisingly, while individual bees had difficulty solving the puzzle from the beginning, bees allowed to observe trained demonstration bees completed the entire sequence, including the first step. You just learned quickly and got rewarded at the end.
This study shows that bumblebees have a level of social learning that was previously thought to be unique to humans.
They can share and acquire behaviors that are beyond the cognitive capacity of individuals. This ability is thought to underpin the vast and complex nature of human culture, and was previously thought to be exclusive to us.
“This is a very difficult task for bees,” said study lead author Dr. Alice Bridges, a researcher at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Sheffield.
“They had to learn two steps to get the reward, and the first action in the sequence was not rewarded.”
“Initially, we had to train demonstration bees to include temporary rewards, which highlighted the complexity.”
“But other bees learned the sequence from the social observations of these trained bees, without ever experiencing the reward of the first step.”
“But when we tried to get other bees to open the box without a bee trained to show them the solution, they couldn't open it at all.”
This study opens up exciting possibilities for understanding the emergence of cumulative culture in the animal kingdom, beyond individual learning.
Cumulative culture refers to the gradual accumulation of knowledge and skills over generations, allowing increasingly complex behaviors to develop.
The ability of bees to learn such complex tasks from demonstrators suggests potential pathways for cultural transmission and innovation beyond the bees' individual learning abilities.
“This challenges the traditional view that only humans can learn socially complex behaviors beyond individual learning,” says Professor Chitka.
“Many of the most remarkable achievements of social insects, such as the nesting structures of honey bees and wasps and the agricultural habits of ants that farm aphids and fungi, may have first been spread by imitation by clever innovators, and then spread. , which is increasingly likely.'' They eventually became part of the species-specific behavioral repertoire. ”
Regarding this research, paper Published in the Journal on March 6, 2024 Nature.
_____
AD bridge other. Bumblebees socially learn behaviors that are too complex to innovate alone. Nature, published online March 6, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07126-4
Source: www.sci.news
