Dave Ames 🟨🟥
Massimo 
The bumblebee queen learns how to use the protective cap in less than 24 hours.
OutOfSpace - 不割席@Rainmaker1973 operant conditioning, shaping, with a bumblebee. impressive! didn't know that they learn that way.
reletDoes it help that the cap is transparent, or would it work if the entrance is hidden?
Charlie Stross@relet @Rainmaker1973 More importantly, is the cap transparent *to the wavelengths and polarizations bumblebees see in*? (I know some/all bees see into the ultraviolet and are sensitive to polarization.)
millennial fulcrum@relet @Rainmaker1973 my guess if the other spatial markers remain the same, maybe bolstered with scent markers too (all to confirm this is the right address and promote persistence) that could work.
to habituate the bee the cover could be made progressively more opaque.
might also help if the cover had a dark dot on it the size of the hole.
a testable question!
Aljoscha Rittner (beandev)@falcennial
A dark blue cover would be interesting. Because bumble bees love blue. It shouldn't be white or another bright color.
@relet @Rainmaker1973
A dark blue cover would be interesting. Because bumble bees love blue. It shouldn't be white or another bright color.
@relet @Rainmaker1973
@falcennial
But I think the transparent cover is useful for the way out, time of day and weather conditions.
@relet @Rainmaker1973
But I think the transparent cover is useful for the way out, time of day and weather conditions.
@relet @Rainmaker1973
GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)
Mike Torr@Rainmaker1973 This is really cool! I watched it right to the end, I was so fascinated.
Disisdeguey🔻PalestineAction🇵🇸@Rainmaker1973 So cool. Is like "shaping" the behaviour.
The Tiller 🌈@Rainmaker1973 Very naive question: why is this cap needed?
Sari Mikkonen 🇫🇮🌻🇪🇺@swoonie @Rainmaker1973 was thinking the same. Is there possibility that it gradually damages her wings/back hair
Nils M Holm
Feyter
DM 🇪🇺🏳️🌈
bitWasps probably. Paper wasps, yellowjackets and hornets have been increasingly a problem.
There is a bit more information here:
https://beekeepercorner.com/wasps-attacking-bee-hives-causes-prevention-strategies/
thermonuclear small claims@swoonie @Rainmaker1973 I read elsewhere it's to prevent wax moths, they're apparently a real pest for bumblebee colonies
slyborg
Ted Mielczarek@slyborg @fullfathomfive @swoonie @Rainmaker1973 presumably the fact that they don't get to learn the trick in stages like the queen did.
UkeleleEric@fullfathomfive @tedmielczarek @slyborg @swoonie @Rainmaker1973 yeah, if you watch, the bee pushes the cap up from below with the body. But a moth will be flying from above and doesn't have a substantive and prominent body above the wings even if got into the right position.
Kingfisher@Rainmaker1973 Fascinating!
Branwen74@Rainmaker1973 Never before in my life have I been so proud of a bumblebee.
Toni Aittoniemi@Rainmaker1973 It ain’t the the amount of neurons, but how you use them!
Laurens@Rainmaker1973 It's also interesting to see that she seems to perceive that something is different every time and then tests the location of the cap to find out if she can enter.
romaintb@Rainmaker1973 smarter than both my cats 🤭
Us©hi | Ungehaltene Bürgerin@Rainmaker1973 Fascinating!
Lsamuelson57@Rainmaker1973
What impresses me is this: *WE* are learning. Recognizing the potential in all beings, and working with them within their capabilities.
I remember the Scientific American article showing bumblebees voluntarily exploring their environment, and the effect the observations had on the researchers.
Slowly and hesitantly, humans are coming around to seeing the world more fully.
Thanks to Massimo for sharing this.
ts 🚇@Rainmaker1973 i’m curious, what is it meant to protect against?
Crazypedia won't Comply@tsyum @Rainmaker1973 door to door, er ,hive to hive sales bees?
@Rainmaker1973 sorry I didn’t realize others had asked this already. (Interactions don’t show up for me until after I engage with a post.)
I’ll have to pay attn to whether this is a mastodon thing or my particular app
I’ll have to pay attn to whether this is a mastodon thing or my particular app
Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥
SinMisterios@pascaline @tsyum @Rainmaker1973 it must be a federation thing. May be its the first time your instances interacts with those instances.
S T E L L A R 
@Rainmaker1973 shes big and round hehe 
bellegraylane@Rainmaker1973 clever girl.
Wm.son
Kristen@Sfwmson @Rainmaker1973 So cute to watch this little bee figure it out.
Anthropy@Rainmaker1973 does this count as human feedback reinforcement learning 
Frieke@Rainmaker1973 this video above will interest @thebeeguy
@Rainmaker1973 Just needs a letter box now.
Joan of Contention 😷@Rainmaker1973 "Who put this here!? One is not amused.." 👑
But seriously, this is fascinating! 🐝
David Mitchell 
Question: I wonder, is the conditioning actually necessary? I imagine that entrances blocked by leaves or other debris isn’t super uncommon in the wild, and that a range of escalating behaviours ranging up to ‘chew yourself a new entrance’ are within her toolkit and likely to be used before simply abandoning a hive. Bees are remarkably resilient creatures…
Certainly this seems likely to have been less stressful for her (?), but how long might it have taken to work it out if the cap had simply been installed one night when she was home?
Koantig@DavidM_yeg
That's what I'm wondering as well; apart from going under the door, there's not much else it could have done. Possibly giving up but then again that would be something to test before concluding that something was learned.
What a terrific, moving video.
It's always so good to see that other animals too can think, they can solve puzzles, they learn, they play, the come up with creative solutions.
I always love these things.
It's good to show as many as possible so people will en masse, finally, one beautiful day, all understand we humans should not treat them as 'things' that can be shoved aside. They have feelings (many of them), they think, they learn, they play, they enjoy things 💗
Daniel Beneš@Rainmaker1973 Won't that damage her eyes? Evolution hasn't equipped her for that kind of behavior.
wedz@Rainmaker1973 realy interesting against hornets.
Do you think bee can learn the same stuff ?
Do you think bee can learn the same stuff ?
deheems@Rainmaker1973 So cool!
DaSchnott🌞@Rainmaker1973
And my cat in front of everthing:
And my cat in front of everthing:
J3RN 
@Rainmaker1973 Smarter than my dog
Corinna (versiffte Göre)@Rainmaker1973 soo... Have you gaslit the bumblebee into believing she was getting fat? 🤔
Artem Anufrij@Rainmaker1973 Faszinierend!
lies_das 
Antifaschist
tonda 🦇@Rainmaker1973 this is not a new invention. I have seen this over 12 years ago in the garden of my ex-boyfriends father an I still love it ☺️🐝
Ronald@Rainmaker1973 fascinating!
I Don't Know@Rainmaker1973 kinda bugs me that the bee keeps climbing up to the right first then finally settling on pushing up centrally as if it has never learned a thing? Then it eventually resorts to 'feeling its way' with its head rather than puzzling it out or remembering. Not to discredit them, but intuitively I hesitate to call this learning.
Simon Brooke@Rainmaker1973 what's the benefit — versus the obvious energy cost — of the flap to the bees? Bumble bees run on a very tight energy budget, anything that costs energy has got to affect their reproductive success. A simple hood would prevent rain intrusion, and any predator capable of invading a burrow can probably lift the flap.
I mean, it's clever and all, but does it actually help the bees?
Shadedlady@Rainmaker1973 it might hurt it's wings by having to scrape by the plastic. I fo not condone experiments with animals
Nudeln Al Dente 🐘@Rainmaker1973 Impressive. That bee has learned to use a cat flap faster & more reliably than my cat did, bearing in mind that the bee can use it to go both in and out. 