They may have tiny brains, but it turns out that bumblebees can not only learn to use tools by observing others, they can improvise and make the task even easier.

Key points: Bees were taught how to do a task they would not normally do

Bees were taught how to do a task they would not normally do They were able to improve on the task after watching another bee complete it

They were able to improve on the task after watching another bee complete it Study shows that bees have cognitive powers way beyond what we thought an insect could have

We knew bees were smart, but this level of brain power has never before been seen in an insect, according to a team of UK scientists writing in the journal Science.

"Our study terminates the idea that small brains constrain insects to have limited behavioural flexibility and only simple learning abilities," said Olli Loukola of Queen Mary University of London.

Dr Loukola said previous research had shown that bees could solve a range of complex tasks, including categorising objects, simple spatial concepts and even counting.

"But these tasks have always resembled those similar to the insect's natural foraging routines," he said.

To take the bees out of their comfort zone, Dr Loukola and his colleagues designed a series of experiments where the bees were taught to move a ball to the centre of a platform, in exchange for a food reward.

How to train a bee

The researchers used a plastic bumblebee to show the bees what to do, until the learners successfully completed the task themselves within five minutes.

But then the team went further by training bees in a set-up with three balls, where the two closest to the centre were superglued to the platform.

These bees were then used as "trainers", fetching the farthest ball in a repeat of the same set-up, with an untrained bee watching.

Remarkably, when those watching bees were then offered a similar scenario on their own — this time with three unglued balls to choose from — they not only succeeded, they tended to choose the closest ball to the centre, improving on the behaviour of the trainer bees.

Bees that were trained by a hidden magnet or got no lesson at all, on the other hand, were much less successful.

It seems that bees do their best learning — and improvising — after watching a fellow bumblebee do the job.

Dr Loukola said the findings showed that the observer bees were not simply copying what they saw; they were taking it on board and improving it.

"This goal-directed behaviour shows an impressive amount of cognitive flexibility, especially for an insect," he said.

He said the bees' capacity to solve complex tasks could help them to survive constantly changing environments.

"However, rapid climate change, habitat loss and the use of pesticides are unfortunately too much, even for the cleverest bumblebees," he said.

Bumblebees continue to surprise us with their brain power. ( Wikimedia: Tony Willis )

Bees smarter than we give them credit for

Associate Professor Andrew Barron of Macquarie University said the study provided a "convincing argument" that bees could rapidly learn how to do something by watching others.

"That's been very contentious as to whether insects can do that," said Dr Barron, who studies bee brains.

He said the study demonstrated bees were a lot more behaviourally flexible and adaptable than we had given them credit for.

"We are getting an increasing idea about how the structure of the bee brain works. What is continuing to surprise us, is what bees are doing with that brain," he said.

"We wouldn't be surprised to see [this kind of behaviour] in something like a rat, but certainly this is the first demonstration we've got of these forms of behaviour [in insects]," he said.

Dr Barron said the study also provided a different perspective on the human brain.

"For me, the questions is how are they able to achieve this level of behavioural flexibility with a brain that has less than a million neurons?"

"If a bee can do this kind of thing ... with a tiny brain, why is ours so massive?"