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Social learning in bumblebees

Bees are capable of sophisticated cognitive abilities and can use conspecifics (other bees) as an indicator of potential food rewards. However, plants vary in the rewards they offer meaning, joining behaviour will only increase foraging efficiency if bees can learn to use social cues ‘flexibly’ depending on the plant species visited. We are investigating how bees use both social and asocial cues depending on their context, with the overall aim to better understand how bees perceive, learn, and use information from their surrounding environment.

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