The Conversation: Bees Have Irrational Biases When Choosing Which Flowers To Feed on − Just Like Human Shoppers

Just like people confronted with a sea of options at the grocery store, bees foraging in meadows encounter many different flowers at once. They must decide which ones to visit for food, but it isn't always a straightforward choice.

When confronted with these choices, you'd think bees would always pick the flowers with the most accessible, highest-quality nectar and pollen. But they don't. Instead, just like human grocery shoppers, their decisions about which flowers to visit depend on their recent experience with similar flowers and what other flowers are available.

Hemingway

Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Claire Therese Hemingway studied bees to examine how animals make daily choices - especially when looking for food. Read more about her findings at The Conversation.

UT is a member of The Conversation, an independent source for news articles and informed analysis written by the academic community and edited by journalists for the general public. Through this partnership, we seek to provide a better understanding of the important work of our researchers. Read more of our articles published by The Conversation on the UT news site.

-

MEDIA CONTACT:

Cindi King (865-974-0937, [email protected])

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.