Many animals like to play, often for no other apparent reason than enjoyment. Pet owners know this is true for cats, dogs, even rodents--and scientists have observed the same in some fish, frogs, lizards, and birds. Are their minds and lives rich enough to make room for play? New research published in the journal Animal Behaviour suggests that bumblebees seem to enjoy rolling around wooden balls, without being trained or receiving rewards--presumably just because it's fun. "It shows that bees are not little robots that just respond to stimuli… and they do carry out activities that might be pleasurable," says lead author Samadi Galpayage, a researcher at the Queen Mary University of London.

In his experiment, Queen Mary University of London researcher Sylvian Alem attached a fake flower sprinkled with sugar water to the end of a string, placed it under a transparent sheet of glass and then put a group of bumblebees to a test. If he trained them to pull the string to get the sugar water, would they be able to learn it – and spread the skill to their colony? When Lars Chittka, a professor at the university, saw the experiment, he was surprised. "What I like about the work," Dr. Chittka said in a press release, "in addition to the experimental and intellectual challenges and insights, is the sheer absurdity of seeing bees solving a string-pulling puzzle. When lead author Sylvain Alem first showed me a bee successfully pulling on the string, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. And even now, looking at the videos still makes me laugh."

Research has found that bumblebees are capable of learning how to pull strings in exchange of a reward -- specifically food -- and also pass on the ability to do so to other bees. This reportedly marks the first instance where this experiment to test intelligence has proved successful with an insect. The study, by researchers from the Queen Mary University of London, was published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Biology and showed that certain "innovator bees" were able to pull a string to reach sugar water by themselves and in turn, train their "naïve" counterparts to do the same. "We found that when the appropriate social and ecological conditions are present, culture can be mediated by the use of a combination of simple forms of learning," lead author Sylvain Alem said in a press release. "Thus, cultural transmission does not require the high cognitive sophistication specific to humans, nor is it a distinctive feature of humans."