Honey bees are far more precise navigators than scientists once realized. Researchers at the University of Freiburg have discovered that individual honey bees follow their own highly consistent flight routes and can repeat them with remarkable accuracy, relying on landmarks in the landscape to stay on course.
The study was led by neurobiologist and behavioral biologist Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw, whose team used a drone to monitor honey bees traveling between their hive and a food source located about 120 meters away in a farming area.
To track the insects during flight, the researchers used a technique called 'Fast Lock-On (FLO) Tracking', developed by Straw's research group. The method involves attaching a tiny reflective marker to each bee. A computer mounted on the drone analyzes reflected light and can identify and track a bee within milliseconds as it flies.
The observations revealed that each honey bee follows its own preferred route and keeps to that path with exceptional accuracy on both outbound and return trips. The bees also appear to use features in the surrounding landscape to help guide their journeys.
"Our tracking system makes it possible for the first time to record high-resolution 3D flight paths of honey bees in natural landscapes," explains Straw. "Our recordings show that each bee has its own preferred route and flies it very precisely. You could almost say that each bee has its own personality."
How Honey Bees Use Landmarks to Navigate
The researchers analyzed 255 flight paths collected near Kaiserstuhl, Germany. The study area included hedges, a cornfield, and a tree that stood between the hive and the food source, blocking a direct route.
"We found a high degree of precision in the flight paths. Individual bees repeated their individual flight paths nearly exactly on several flights. They often fly just a few centimeters away from their previous paths," Straw points out.
The most consistent flight behavior occurred near prominent landscape features, particularly the tree. The greatest variation appeared when bees flew above the cornfield, where the scenery offered fewer clear visual cues.
"Our results suggest that visual landmarks help the bees navigate and increase the precision of their flight paths," explains Straw. In contrast, the bees become less certain in environments that look the same everywhere.
Honey Bee Navigation vs. the Waggle Dance
The findings also shed new light on the famous waggle dance, the behavior honey bees use to tell other members of the colony where to find food.
"It was previously known that the directional information in the waggle dance is not entirely accurate," explains Straw. For food sources roughly 100 meters away, the directional information in the waggle dance can be off by around 30 degrees.
The new research suggests that this lack of precision in the dance is not the result of poor navigation skills. Instead, bees appear to be far more accurate when traveling to places they already know.
"Our research has shown that individual bees navigate much more accurately to destinations they are familiar with. Even where their flight paths vary most, they stray from their individual route by only a few degrees. Our results allow us to conclude that the inaccuracy of the waggle dance is not due to the bees' limited navigational abilities. Rather, individual bees have a far better sense of direction than their dance communication would suggest," says Straw.