Do bees have inner lives? Slow-motion video reveals bumblebee behaviour similar to ‘liking’ or ‘disliking’

A new study suggests that bees exhibit 'emotion-like' behaviours; when they taste something good, for instance, they stick out their glossa (tongues) afterwards. Photograph: The Bee Lab at Southern Medical University View image in fullscreen A new study suggests that bees exhibit 'emotion-like' behaviours; when they taste something good, for instance, they stick out their glossa (tongues) afterwards. Photograph: The Bee Lab at Southern Medical University Do bees have inner lives? Slow-motion video reveals bumblebee behaviour similar to ‘liking’ or ‘disliking’ Bees respond to tasty treats or plain water based on context, study that may provide support for establishing insect sentience shows Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast When bumblebees taste something good, they reach out their glossa – or insect tongue – for a while afterwards, almost as if they are licking their lips. And when they don’t like something, the insects will shake their heads and wipe their mouths. Scientists who captured the miniature facial expressions on slow-motion video say the behaviour is consistent with “liking” and “disliking” responses observed in mammals. Their results have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the study, a collaboration between Macquarie University and the Southern Medical University in China, researchers presented bumblebees with droplets of different solutions – 60% sugar, 20% sugar, plain water, 5% salt, or quinine (at a concentration of 1 millimolar) – and recorded their reactions. Pollinators in peril: scientists reveal the hidden human health costs of the world’s disappearing bees Read more Professor Andrew Barron, who researches insect behaviour at Macquarie University and who co-authored the paper, said under normal conditions the bees displayed something called “post-consumption glossa” after tasting the sweet solution: they kept on licking even after they’d finished drinking. In contrast, they showed clear distaste for salt or quinine solutions. “Facial expressions are an important window into the internal states of animals,” he said. “What we found is that bees show responses with their mouthparts to solutions that indicate their subjective like or dislike of those solutions. It tells us there is an inner life to the insect.” Slow-motion footage of bumblebees shows how they react when they 'like' or 'dislike' things – video Without language, evidence for pleasure or pain is challenging to establish in other animals. So scientists study behavioural markers, like facial expressions, to gauge positive and negative experiences. Previous studies have shown that mammals, such as primates and rats, display clear signs of “liking” such as licking and sticking out their tongues, and “disliking”. “If a rat gets a salty taste it doesn’t like, it wipes its mouth parts, wipes its whiskers, wipes its tongue,” Barron said. “And we see something similar in a bee.” But while similar find