Leanness also makes the birds more maneuverable, an asset if they are attacked. Back to the beginning. In all the studies of honeybees over the years, until recently no one had been able to figure out how the busy insects orient themselves in the world at large. Then researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign fitted bees with tiny reflectors and tracked individual insects in flight using specific radar frequencies that bounced off the reflectors. The scientists found that bees take a series of training flights, each time learning about different and larger portions of the landscape around the hive.
Bees can navigate their way home from more than six miles away.
That would be a huge change in your sensory environment, and it would probably take time for you to adjust. That's how it is for bees. Now the scientists want to know why some bees take only one orientation flight before starting to forage while others take as many as 17 flights. Back to the beginning. When a creature turns out to be 250 years old, it seems that a little historical context is in order.