Bumblebees have demonstrated amazing abilities that scientists previously thought were limited to humans and other animals with larger brains. In a new study, insects successfully completed a completely unfamiliar object manipulation task despite never being taught how to solve it.
The discovery challenges the long-held belief that spontaneous problem solving is unique to humans and other large-brained vertebrates.
More than a century ago, psychologist Wolfgang Köhler showed that chimpanzees could suddenly solve unfamiliar problems by combining objects in new ways, such as stacking boxes to reach a banana hanging above their heads. These experiments became classic examples of insight and spontaneous problem solving in animals.
Now, researchers from the University of Oulu, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Turku in Finland have discovered a comparable ability in bumblebees.
Bumblebee has solved a new problem
This study sciencetested bumblebee (ground bomb) I faced a problem I had never experienced before.
First, the bees learned that blue artificial flowers contained rewards. During the experiment, the researchers moved the flowers to the ceiling of a transparent arena, out of reach of the bees.
To get the reward, the bees had to come up with an entirely new solution. Those who succeeded rolled a small ball under the flower and climbed on top of it. This was a series of movements I had never been trained to do.
“This is essentially an insect version of the classic ‘box and bananas’ problem,” says senior author Oli Loukola, a PhD at the University of Oulu. “Animals need to understand that objects can be repositioned and used as tools to achieve goals that are otherwise inaccessible. What is striking about these results is that this type of spontaneous problem solving has also been demonstrated in insects.”
“What makes this behavior particularly remarkable is that the bees have not been trained to roll a ball. This was a completely new challenge. The bees’ behavior appeared to be goal-directed, and successful individuals showed more directional movement patterns,” says lead author Akshae Bamboir from the University of Oulu.
Controlled experiments ruled out simpler explanations
Bees were never taught to move a ball under flowers. Instead, they only learned two separate things in advance. The blue flower provides a reward, and the ball is a movable, harmless object.
When faced with new challenges, many bees combined their previous experiences in ways that went beyond what they had previously learned.
“Another important aspect is that our bees were completely naive,” Rucola added. “In many previous studies of insight-like problem solving, the animals have had extensive experience with objects, test environments, and other problem-solving tasks. Here, the bees had never been trained to use a ball to reach flowers and had no experience with this type of solution. We also designed our experiments to rule out simple explanations such as chance success, play behavior, trial-and-error learning, or direct visual guidance.”
The researchers also conducted several control experiments to rule out alternative explanations, such as chance success or simple visual guidance.
In some of the more severe tests, the flowers were hidden from view while the bees moved the ball. Therefore, it was not possible to simply maneuver towards a visible goal. Still, many bees rolled the ball into the correct position.
“By analyzing bee behavior through unusually rigorous controlled experiments, we were able to show that bees are not just responding to visual stimuli or randomly moving a ball,” said lead author Bamboir.
Tiny brains show amazing flexibility
Even the scientists conducting the experiment were amazed to see how the bees solved the problem.
“One moment the animals seem to be exploring without direction, and the next they carry out a highly efficient sequence of actions that lead directly to a solution,” says co-author Ece Nour Akmeshe of the University of Helsinki. “It was really fascinating to watch the bees solve problems.”
This new discovery adds to the evidence that bees have advanced cognitive abilities despite their small brains. Previous research has shown that bees can socially learn how to use tools, solve puzzle-like tasks, cooperate with each other, and adapt their behavior to changing conditions.
However, the researchers stress that these results should not be interpreted as evidence that insects think like humans or have human-like consciousness.
“We don’t claim that bees think like humans,” says Loukola, now a senior researcher at the University of Turku. “But our findings show that small brains can generate flexible solutions to new problems in ways we are only beginning to understand.”
Overall, the results suggest that spontaneous, goal-directed problem solving can emerge even in animals with much smaller brains than the vertebrates traditionally studied in intelligence research.
“For more than a century, spontaneous object-based problem solving has been studied primarily in vertebrates,” Loukola says. “Our research suggests that insects may also be included in that conversation.”
The study, titled “Spontaneous problem solving in bumble bees,” by Akshaye A. Bhambore, Ece N. Akmeşe, Emma Häkkinen, Milla K. Jussila, Juha-HeikkiKantola and Olli J. Loukola, was published in the journal June 4, 2026. science.
