Scientists from the Free University of Berlin discovered that honeybees orient themselves according to the linear elements of the terrain during flight – like the first airplane pilots guided by railways and rivers. Research published in the journal Boundaries in Behavioral Neuroscience.
Before the invention of the first radio beacons and GPS, pilots would often move along the path along other prominent linear features of the terrain.
In late summer 2010 and 2011, near a village near Brandenburg, scientists captured 50 honeybee hunters and attached small tracking devices to their backs. The highlight in the test area was a pair of parallel irrigation channels running from the southwest to the northeast.
Scientists have discovered that insects spend most of their flight time moving along irrigation channels. Then, when the bees memorize the location of the channels, they can fly to a higher altitude where such landscape elements are not visible.
It has been shown before that bats and birds also use linear landmarks for navigation. Research has shown that honeybees can navigate with their sense of smell, the sun, the polarized light pattern of the sky, vertical landmarks, and possibly Earth’s magnetic field.