CANBERRA, Australia, May 18 (UPI) -- Honeybees can use landmarks and "read" the sky to find their way home over several days and up to 7 miles of travel, Australian researchers say.
Scientists at the Australian National University found that bees can travel cross-country using the position of the sun, the polarization of light in the sky, the panorama view of the horizon and landmarks including towers, mountains or lakes, a university release said Wednesday.
In the study, researchers caught foraging bees as they returned to their hives and laced them in a sealed, black box.
The bees were then transported to spots at various distances up 7 miles away and released.
"In their forage trips, one way that honeybees use to find their way home is by storing distance and directional information when they venture out," said Professor ShaoWu Zhang. "In other words, they try to go back the way they came.
"Catching them as soon as they reach their hives and placing them in a black box sets their pre-calculated information back to zero, so the bees are deprived of any directional information in relation to the hive. By doing this, we can confirm that they are relying solely on knowledge that they have gathered about the landscape to travel home.
"Bees released from longer distances did not reach their hives until two to three days later. What took us by surprise was the bee's ability to retain their knowledge of the landscape and directions for several days."
