[ExI] Bees learn to pull a string to get food

[BillK]

We know that crows can pull on a string to get a prize, but now bees
can do it as well!

<http://www.popsci.com/watch-bumblebee-tug-string-to-get-lunch>

Quote:
Bumblebees can be taught to yank a string to collect a sweet treat,
scientists reported today in the journal PLOS Biology. Bees also
picked up this “highly unnatural” way of foraging from watching each
other.

The string-tugging puzzle the team used is often used to test
cognitive abilities in vertebrates, partly because it’s not the type
of behavior most animals would do on their own. Though bees drag
debris and corpses from their nest, they don’t pull objects with the
expectation of getting a snack.

Like other animals, though, the insects could be trained in this task.
A few even figured it out on their own. You can watch one of the
“experienced” bees earn her lunch in the video above. The blue disk is
designed to mimic a flower, with a well of sugar water in the center.
To slide the flower out from under a Plexiglas table, the worker bee
must use her forelegs to grasp and yank the string.

Bumblebees could also learn the trick by observing their peers.
Fifteen of 25 uninformed bees picked the skill up after watching
another bee in action. And a single bee could introduce the
string-pulling technique to a colony, with the skill continuing to
spread even after that bee had died. “Once one bee knew how to string
pull, over time, most of the foraging bees learned,” wrote the
researchers. “Learning a non-natural task in bumblebees can spread
culturally through populations.”
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BillK