Researchers discover honey bees can Count…But only up to four!

A new study confirms that honey bees can count. In even simpler words, the discovery is that bees can differentiate between patterns containing 2 or 3 dots and according to some researchers with the help of a little bit of schooling, they can even be made to differentiate between numbers 3 and 4.

The study was conducted by The Vision Centre and Australian National University. Dr. Shaowu Zhang, who was part of the study said, “There has been a lot of evidence that vertebrates, such as pigeons, dolphins, or monkeys, have natural number competence but we never expected to find such abilities in insects.”

This finding leads researchers to conclude that as far as basic skills are concerned, there is not much difference or well defined boundary between insects, animals, and humans. As for the ability of differentiating between numbers of honey bees, it can actually help them in finding good source of pollen even when they are miles away from their hives.

Now that the researchers have discovered that bees can tell the difference between numbers at a glance, they are presently planning to test whether bees can perform basic arithmetic as well or not. So much for their fame of being the most hard-working creatures in the world, with this new study and many others to come, honey bees may become famous for emerging as the new era mathletes of animal kingdom!