One bumblebee. One wooden ball. One hundred and seventeen times - with no reward, no training, and no reason anyone could explain. In Part 2 of our bumblebee play series, we follow PhD student Samadi Galpayage, who couldn't stop thinking about the bees she'd watched rolling balls for no apparent reason. What she discovered - published in the journal Animal Behaviour in 2022 — became the first scientific proof that insects play. Not for food. Not for survival. Just for the joy of it. We dig into what that means for how we understand bee emotion, insect sentience, and the surprisingly blurry line between creatures that feel and creatures we've always assumed don't. If this episode doesn't change the way you look at the next Bumblebee you see, nothing will.
Galpayage Dona, H.S., Solvi, C., Kowalewska, A., Mäkelä, K., MaBouDi, H., & Chittka, L. (2022). Do bumble bees play? Animal Behaviour, 194, 239–251
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