Bees

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.

Whether animals feel emotion, and are capable of suffering, is a question the answer to which has far-reaching implications. I recently read Victoria Braithwaite's `Do Fish Feel Pain?', a question that I didn't worry about much until reading this book, but now bothers me a lot more.

What information is contained in the call of a mammal? Some calls might reflect the internal emotional state of the animal, like fear or anxiety, or they can refer to an external object, agent, or event, like the presence of a predator.