Nature abounds with astonishing surprises. If someone were to imagine a member of the animal kingdom that can be trained to pull on a string to obtain a reward or rolls around little wooden balls just for fun, a bumblebee probably wouldn’t be what comes to mind. And yet for a creature with a brain the size of a sesame seed, bumblebees are capable of some startling cognitive tasks.
First, though – a few basics. There are no generic bumblebees but rather over 250 unique species worldwide, with 14 recorded just in La Plata County. Indeed, upon close inspection bumblebee species do look quite different from one another, sporting their own distinctive patterns of red, orange, yellow or black stripes on the thorax and abdomen. These conspicuous colors are like a flashing yellow light warning predators of a possible painful encounter. Fortunately, bumblebees seldom sting humans, usually doing so only when swatted or protecting their nests.
Bumblebees are the only social bees native to North America, living in colonies and engaging in divisions of labor like their non-native European cousin the honeybee. Their homes and life cycles are wholly different, however.
Bumblebees have small nests, housing as few as 50 to 1000 individuals compared to 20,000 to 80,000 for honeybees, and most are built underground, often in abandoned rodent burrows. Their brooding chambers are rather sloppy and disorganized affairs compared to the neatly compact, hexagonal cells that honeybees construct.
Bumblebees forage for pollen and nectar in similar fashion to honeybees, but they don’t produce honey and only store enough nectar for a few days to tide them over during bad weather. Thus when winter arrives the entire colony dies, and only the newly hatched queens survive by burrowing underground, lowering their metabolic rate and living on their fat stores until spring.
So back to those astonishing cognitive skills. In 2017, researchers from Queen Mary University of London did a series of experiments where bumblebees interacted with small wooden balls.
In one, they trained the bees to roll balls into a “goal” to receive a reward of nectar, teaching them in effect to play “bee soccer.” (Leave it to the soccer-happy Brits!) But what really surprised the researchers was another experiment to learn whether untrained bumblebees would interact with the balls without receiving any kind of reward. They did, repeatedly, apparently just for play.
Another experiment trained bumblebees to pull on a string for a nectar reward, and when this was done while untrained bees were watching, the novice bees quickly caught on and replicated the task.
“Pollinators” has recently become a buzz word (pun intended!) and bumblebees are an integral member of the global pollinating community. Bumblebees fertilize billions of dollars worth of crops both in open fields and greenhouses. But like almost all pollinators, bumblebee populations are in decline.
Loss of habitat, use of herbicides and insecticides, particularly neonicotinoids which linger in a plant’s tissues and cause long-term poisoning, have all taken a toll. The good news? We can help!
Landscaping with a variety of plants (preferably native!) that bloom early-, mid-, and late-summer will help provide season-long pollen and nectar sources. Even just planting a couple of doorstep flower pots can help. Purchasing plants from nurseries that don’t use neonicotinoids is becoming increasingly easier to do. Many other ways to help can be found through the Xerces Society website at www.xerces.org/bumble-bees.
They’re fuzzy, they’re cute, they hardly ever sting, they’re crucial for growing food crops, and they like soccer. What’s not to love? Linger a moment next time you’re near a cluster of flowers and reintroduce yourself to these buzzing little wonders of the natural world.
Mary Grizzard is an amateur naturalist and volunteers with the San Juan Mountains Association. You can reach her at ladygriz55@gmail.com.
