A new study shows that bees can be trained to do a task and teach others in anticipation for a reward.

For years, studies of apes, crows, and parrots have eclipsed cognitive research. But Queen Mary University of London researcher Sylvian Alem worked on bees to determine whether "With the promise of a reward, could animals learn a skill unnatural to their lifestyles and pass it on to their peers?"

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Until this experiment, almost everyone assumed that insects acted on instinct, not intelligence. How smart these animals are was revealed when Alem conducted an experiment in which he connected an artificial flower sprayed with sugar water to the end of a string, put it beneath a clear layer of glass and then put a group of bumblebees to the test.

Lars Chittka, a professor at the university, was shocked to see the experiment. "What I like about the work, in addition to the experimental and intellectual challenges and insights, is the sheer absurdity of seeing bees solving a string-pulling puzzle," said Dr. Chittka in a press release.

The researchers found that bumblebees can not only master how to pull a string to retrieve a reward, but they can also learn this skill from other bees, although they have no prior knowledge of such a task.

Dr. Alem and Chittka published the study in PLOS Biology.

Christian Rutz, an evolutionary ecologist who studies bird cognition at the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom, said "The research "successfully challenges the notion that 'big brains' are necessary" for new skills to grow." 

The implications of the research could be transposed to human behavioral evolution, shedding light on how people may have acquired advanced models of learning and cognitive abilities through the ages, tracing back to the first tool-using humans.

Many researchers have applied string-pulling tests to evaluate the intelligence of animals, especially birds, and apes. However, this is the first time it has been used to examine social learning and cultural transmission in insects.