00:00It is fascinating to observe how rusty the burdens are.
00:04Although their brain is the size of a tiny seed of pavos,
00:08these little insects have an incredible intelligence.
00:12Recently, researchers have discovered that bees have indesemotions propers
00:16and poor ant meme hatred with the sensations.
00:19They can, for example, show signs of anxiety in stressful situations,
00:23like a predator attack.
00:25They then show themselves prudent and indecisive,
00:28even avoiding perfectly sure flowers.
00:31This tends to show that they could have similar feelings
00:34to what we call emotions.
00:36They can also feel discomfort or pleasure.
00:40Scientists have trained bees to associate certain colors with rewards.
00:46When these bees received a surprise,
00:49they seemed happier and more tenacious.
00:51It's not the same at home?
00:53We also put these bees in situations where they had to choose
00:57between discomfort and a reward.
00:59These insects have shown that they could weigh different options
01:03and make decisions based on their feelings.
01:06This suggests that they could be bothered, just like us.
01:09They can even exhibit complex emotions,
01:12such as optimism, frustration and bewilderment.
01:15And these are not the only surprises these bees have reserved for us.
01:19Bees are much more than simple honey-producing pollinators.
01:23There are more than 25,000 different species of bees in the world,
01:27each with its own unique way of life.
01:30They live in a world of totally different sensations from ours.
01:34They see, in particular, things in ultraviolet and polarized light.
01:38They can even feel the fluctuations of magnetic and electric fields of the earth.
01:44This helps them determine which flowers have already been visited by other bees.
01:49A big turn in the evolution of bees took place much earlier,
01:52during the Jurassic period.
01:54Their ancestors then decided to go from a nomadic life to a sedentary life in hives.
01:59This change forced them to remember the location of their nest,
02:03without which they would find themselves in difficulty.
02:06Their brains therefore adapted,
02:08and certain regions became larger and more complex
02:11in order to manage all this new information.
02:13And today, millions of years later,
02:16bees have become incredibly intelligent creatures,
02:19and even able to solve mathematical puzzles.
02:22Ah, if I had such friends in high school!
02:25Yes, bees seem to understand the concepts of addition and subtraction.
02:30Researchers have set up mathematical, special, letter-shaped labyrinths
02:35so that bees can locate themselves.
02:38Instead of using numbers or symbols that bees cannot understand,
02:42they used colors.
02:44Blue meant to add one,
02:46and yellow meant to subtract one.
02:49Bees had to choose the right path
02:51according to the colors they saw at the beginning of the labyrinth.
02:54After a little training,
02:56during which the bees made a hundred trips through these labyrinths,
03:00they seemed to have got the hang of it.
03:02Then came the test.
03:04These little insects came up with the solution in most cases,
03:08which is always better than if they simply died at random.
03:12This does not mean that bees perform complex calculations in their heads,
03:16nevertheless.
03:18But they could have malleable brains,
03:20able to learn new tasks,
03:22even if they are not used to the natural state.
03:25They also showed a certain understanding of the concept of zero.
03:29Scientists then trained them to recognize the smallest of two numbers.
03:33They thus showed bees images with different numbers of shapes,
03:38rewarding them with sweets if they chose the image that contained the coins.
03:44But if they opted for the image with the most shapes,
03:48they received a taste of happiness.
03:50Once the bees understood the principle,
03:52the researchers introduced a new option,
03:55a blank image without any shape.
03:58And the bees chose this blank image,
04:00rather than images with two or three shapes,
04:03almost half the time.
04:04This suggests that they understood that 0 is less than 2 or 3.
04:08In more advanced experiments,
04:10bees showed that they could make the difference between 1 and 0.
04:14This could help them keep predators
04:17or find food sources more efficiently.
04:20And if bees can understand 0,
04:22who knows how many other animals can do the same?
04:25Not only bees can learn and remember new things,
04:29but they can also teach them to each other,
04:32just as we do.
04:33Scientists have set up a complex puzzle in a laboratory
04:37and trained beekeepers to solve it.
04:39First, expert beekeepers solved the puzzle.
04:42Then, they taught their friends how to do it without clues.
04:46It turns out that humans are not the only ones
04:48able to transmit knowledge in this way.
04:51In another experiment,
04:53bees received a puzzle to solve over several days.
04:56Although they spent a lot of time solving it,
04:59they could not do it without a little human assistance.
05:02But once they saw the solution,
05:04they did not take long to understand.
05:07We also discovered that if a particularly bright bee belonged to the group,
05:12its innovative ideas could last
05:14and shape their society for several generations,
05:17in a curiously similar way to that of humans.
05:20Even behaviors that we thought were purely instinctive,
05:23like the famous honey dance,
05:25seem to be influenced by social learning.
05:28Bees can even be trained to use tools,
05:31a skill that we thought was reserved for some mammals and some birds.
05:36We designed a test where bees had to move a small ball
05:39to the center of a platform to get a sweet reward.
05:42Bees do not do this kind of thing in the wild,
05:45so that the biologists had to teach them.
05:48By using a plastic bee at the end of a stick,
05:51the researchers illustrated the task in front of the bees.
05:54After a few days of training,
05:56they began to push the ball to the center on their own.
05:59And once again, they showed the other bees how to do it.
06:03What is not insignificant,
06:05is that they did not simply copy the technique blindly.
06:08When they were faced with new situations,
06:11they refined what they had already learned
06:14and chose the most effective way to success.
06:17For example, when they were given the choice between balls of different colors,
06:21the bees chose the one closest to the center,
06:24even if they had been trained in different conditions.
06:27This proves that bees do not just follow instructions.
06:31They think and adapt to new challenges.
06:34We tended to consider bees as a homogeneous workforce.
06:38It is a huge collective consciousness,
06:41where everyone serves their queen relentlessly.
06:44But this conception is also questioned by new research.
06:48It seems that bees have distinct personalities.
06:53And yes, certain samples of enthousiasis tend to scatter
06:56as perfect with their prehistoric shape.
06:59A small percentage of bees, called lighters,
07:02show a certain interest in strong sensations,
07:05by looking for new locations for the colony.
07:08These daring lighters are not only more likely
07:11to search or build new nests,
07:14but also to participate in the search for food.
07:17And there is a huge difference in the genetic activity
07:20of lighters compared to their worker counterparts.
07:23The lighters' brain has shown an increased activity
07:26in the reward system.
07:29This is where their enthusiasm for new experiences comes from.
07:32It is also very similar to the attraction for novelty
07:35that we find in humans and other animals.
07:38Sometimes their personality is even shaped by their memories
07:41and past experiences.
07:44Some bees would even show signs of post-traumatic stress.
07:47Thus, in the hive, bees choose their tasks
07:50according to their personality traits.
07:53They can also be trained to detect any smell.
07:56They are extremely sensitive to volatile substances.
07:59And thanks to this, they can even detect diseases.
08:02Bees have been trained to associate the smell of infected samples
08:05with a reward in sweet water.
08:08After a repeated exposition,
08:11bees have quickly learned to extend their tongues
08:14in response to this one smell,
08:17without needing any reward.
08:20Thanks to this, they have been able to detect
08:23the infected samples in a few seconds.
08:26This has worked with samples of bees and humans.
08:29The experiment has shown very promising results
08:32in the distinction between healthy and infected samples.
08:35Now, we are trying to implement this innovative approach
08:38and to develop prototypes of machines
08:41that can train several bees simultaneously.
08:44This technology has the potential to serve
08:47as an effective diagnostic system,
08:50especially in low-income countries.
08:53And bees can accomplish many other things.
08:56They can learn during their sleep,
08:59which means they are able to dream
09:02and see in dreams the things they saw during the day.
09:05They can also remember human faces.
09:09In a study, scientists have associated
09:12images of human faces with sweet water
09:15and have discovered that bees recognized
09:18and remembered faces associated with the reward,
09:21even in the absence of this one.
09:24This also helps them to recognize each other
09:27and to return to flowers that produce more pollen.
09:30So, what does all this mean for us?
09:33If it is true that bees really feel emotions
09:37and have a certain form of consciousness,
09:40this radically changes the way we should consider them.
09:43They are already a threatened species.
09:46And maybe, now, we should treat them with much more care.
09:49So be very careful with our bees friends.
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