Research recognizes that bees are highly intelligent

More than 30 years of studies provide data on the capabilities of these animals.

It is known that bees are very important animals for nature and human health in general. They are responsible for pollinating nearly 90% of the world’s flowering plants and about 75% of food crops, according to data from the United Nations (ONU).

Therefore “Bees are declared the most important living being for life on the planet, mainly because they fulfill a function as pollinators. Juliana Duque Cardona, coordinator of the Biological Collections of the CES University (CBUCES) and professor in the Biology and Ecology careers, explained that “Many of them are flower visitors and to that extent they transport the pollen from the male flowers to the male flowers. female, enabling the fruit and seeds to be generated, which guarantees a next generation of plants; So to that extent, they actually support life on the planet.”

Now, though, research by sensory and behavioral ecology professor Lars Chittka, who has spent 30 years studying animals, would also indicate that they are highly intelligent. “Now we have suggestive evidence that there is some level of consciousness in bees, that there is sensitivity, that they have emotional states,” Chittka told The Guardian. Some of this data is described in his new book The Mind of a Bee (The mind of a bee).

According to the researcher, some examples of this intelligence are that they are animals that can count, recognize images of human faces and learn the use of simple tools and abstract concepts. More than that he even thinks there is evidence that bees have emotions, can plan and recognize themselves as unique entities distinct from other bees. These conclusions have been drawn from the research and experiments he has carried out with worker bees. In one of these, the researchers gave them a sugar reward each time they accomplished a task, such as recognizing human faces. Bees had to choose the correct face from several monochrome images of human faces in this experiment, Chittka said. The professor stated that after a dozen or two sessions, they became “competent recognizers.”

“We are exposing them to challenges that no bee has faced in its evolutionary history. For these reasons, Chittka is “quite convinced” that bees are sentient beings. And they are solving them”. The teacher maintains, then, that humanity has an ethical obligation to ensure its survival).

For various reasons, despite this, their populations have been collapsing. The use of insecticides and pesticides, the loss of habitat as a result of agriculture and even climate change have caused the collapse of thousands of hives around the planet. Posted by Iraic.info, a news and information agency.