Bees

Quadcopters appear to be a relatively benign tool to study the behavior and numbers of wetland birds. Christopher Intagliata reports

The title of this article probably is an overstatement. Perhaps instead it should have been ‘a small subset of people in Reno, and possibly in Vegas (because everything you can think of exists there) celebrated pollinators for a week.

Working in the field of animal behaviour means that around World Cup season it’s hard to avoid being sent links to so-called ‘psychic’ animals that predict the outcome of matches, such as Paul the octopus, Leon the porcupine and Anton the tamarin.

The insects rely on more than the sun as a compass

It’s the first documentation of insects incorporating plastic trash into nests

By comparing the genomes of social and solitary bees, scientists hope to uncover the basis for communal behavior

The first bees existed around 130 million years ago at a time when our own ancestors were small, ratlike creatures
 

Survey finds beehives died off at higher rates in northern Europe

Over the next few months we will hear news of this winter’s honey bee losses in North America. The news won’t be good. Although official loss tallies have yet to be released, persistently cold weather across the northern part of the continent has made the 2013-2014 winter an unusually difficult one.

The largest animal behaviour conference in the UK (the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour) was held last Thursday and Friday in my hometown of St Andrews.