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.
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.
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Cindi King (865-974-0937, cking126@utk.edu)