Bumblebees showed that they can solve a challenging puzzle they have never seen before. Even though bumblebees have tiny brains, they can think similar to than humans.

In 1913, a scientist ran a famous experiment with chimpanzees. He hung a banana out of reach and left some sticks and boxes on the ground. After some failed efforts to reach the banana, the chimpanzees stack the boxes on top of each other to reach the banana. Scientists call this “insight” and not many animals have shown to have this kind of insight.

Researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland decided to run an insect version of the classic box and banana problem with bumblebees. They built a special round testing “arena” that was about 1.3 inches tall. They built it small so that the bumblebees do not have room to fly out the hole. Before testing, the researchers let the bees explore the arena. The first one was a fake “flower” with a blue dot on it that has a sugary treat. This is what was used to reward the bumblebees. At the same time the bees were getting used to having a foam ball around. The second stage was that the researchers put the foam ball on top of the dot so the bees had to move the ball of the dot to get the sugar. This helped the bees to understand that the ball could roll. Finally, the researcher presented a real challenge. They moved the blue flower to the top of the arena, so the bumblebees couldn’t reach it. They also made small holes in the floor of the arena. Each of the holes were big enough to hold the foam ball. Only one of the holes was just below the blue dot.

The researchers were testing to see if the bees could figure out the solution by rolling the ball into the hole below the flower. Then the bumblebees climbed can climb on the foam ball to get the reward, but roughly only 73 percent of the bees passed the puzzle.

To make sure the bees were not just lucky, the last challenge was that the scientists hid the blue dot behind a small wall, but the bumblebees still solved the puzzle.