Honeybees Follow Personal Flight Maps with Centimeter-Precision Navigation
University of Freiburg researchers used a drone-based Fast Lock-On tracking system to attach markers to honey bees and map high-resolution 3D flight paths in a natural landscape near Kaiserstuhl, Germany. They found that individual bees follow highly consistent, personally preferred routes and repeat them with centimeter-level precision, using landmarks such as trees to stay on course; monotone areas like cornfields reduce cues and increase variability. The results imply that bees are far more accurate navigating to familiar destinations than suggested by the waggle dance, which conveys directional information that is less precise than the bees’ actual navigation to known sites.
