Creature Feature: Waggle Dance Decoded

Honeybees are unique in the animal kingdom outside of humans and some other primates because they have a symbolic form of communication. The waggle dance performed by a worker  that has found a good source of pollen informs her sisters of the distance and direction of the source. Sussex University researchers spent two years decoded the dance of thousands of honeybees and their results are published in the journal PloS One. Summer is the most challenging season for honeybees because most flowers and fruits have bloomed already, there is competition from other nectar eaters and intensive farming has decimated later blooming wildflowers. In summer they cover 15.2km² compared to 0.8km² in spring. This video is from the LASI laboratory at the University of Sussex: