Cognitive ethology focuses on the study of animals under natural
conditions to reveal ecologically adapted modes of learning. But
biologists can more easily study what an animal learns than how it
learns. For example, honeybees take repeated "orientation" flights
before becoming foragers at about three weeks of age. These flights
are prerequisite for successful homing. Little is known about these
flights because orienting bees rapidly fly out of the range of human
observation. Using harmonic radar, we show for the first time a
striking ontogeny to honeybee orientation flights. With increased
experience, bees hold trip duration constant but fly faster, so later
trips cover a larger area than earlier trips. In addition, each
flight is typically restricted to a narrow sector around the hive.
Orientation flights provide honeybees repeated opportunities to view
the hive and landscape features from different viewpoints, suggesting
that bees learn the local landscape in a progressive fashion. We also
show that these changes in orientation flights are related to the
number of previous flights taken instead of chronological age,
suggesting a learning process adapted to changes in weather
conditions, flower availability, and the needs of bee colonies.
Cognitive ethology focuses on the study of animals under natural
conditions to reveal ecologically adapted modes of learning. But
biologists can more easily study what an animal learns than how it
learns. For example, honeybees take repeated "orientation" flights
before becoming foragers at about three weeks of age. These flights
are prerequisite for successful homing. Little is known about these
flights because orienting bees rapidly fly out of the range of human
observation. Using harmonic radar, we show for the first time a
striking ontogeny to honeybee orientation flights. With increased
experience, bees hold trip duration constant but fly faster, so later
trips cover a larger area than earlier trips. In addition, each
flight is typically restricted to a narrow sector around the hive.
Orientation flights provide honeybees repeated opportunities to view
the hive and landscape features from different viewpoints, suggesting
that bees learn the local landscape in a progressive fashion. We also
show that these changes in orientation flights are related to the
number of previous flights taken instead of chronological age,
suggesting a learning process adapted to changes in weather
conditions, flower availability, and the needs of bee colonies.