Bees can recognize human faces, study finds

[Celebration]

http://www.sciencenewsdaily.org/story-8953.html

Many researchers traditionally believed facial recognition required a large brain, and possibly a specialized area of that organ dedicated to processing face information. The bee finding casts doubt on that, said Adrian G. Dyer, the lead researcher in the study.

He recalls that when he made the discovery, it startled him so much that he called out to a colleague, telling her to come quickly because “no one’s going to believe it—and bring a camera!”

Dyer said that to his knowledge, the finding is the first time an invertebrate has shown ability to recognize faces of other species. But not all bees were up to the task: some flunked it, he said, although this seemed due more to a failure to grasp how the experiment worked than to poor facial recognition specifically...............snip..............

The bees learned to distinguish the correct face from the wrong one with better than 80 percent accuracy, even when the faces were similar, and regardless of where the photos were placed, the researchers found. Also, just like humans, the bees performed worse when the faces were flipped upside-down.

[Tummler]

1. It would be a shame if Washington, DC ...

... became infested with bees that had been trained and/or bred to find a certain human* face particularly threatening.

*more or less

:hide:

(Edited to remove reference to a particular Texas town)

[Dead_Parrot]

2. I can't think what you mean...

:evilgrin:

[supernova]

3. Why wouldn't they?

I mean, think of all the flowers they have to remember. Each one of them is different. :shrug:

[Nihil]

4. Why should they have to remember individual flowers?

All they have to do is remember the way to the garden.

Similarly, I don't have to remember the appearance of every single bottle
of beer, just the way to the supermarket shelf to get another one!
:toast: