Scientists have long accepted the existence of animal culture, be that tool use in New Caledonian crows, or Japanese macaques washing sweet potatoes.
Read the paper here: Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone
But one thing thought to distinguish human culture is our ability to do things too complex to work out alone — no one could have split the atom or traveled into space without relying on the years of iterative advances that came first.
But now, a team of researchers think they’ve observed this phenomenon for the first time outside of humans - in bumblebees.
Tiny robot bee powered by light takes flight
‘Like a moth to a flame’ - This strange insect behaviour is finally explained
‘Touch-taste’: how the octopus repurposed its nervous system to hunt
