Bumblebees have learned to push a ball into a hole to get a reward, stretching what was thought possible for small-brained creatures. Plenty of previous studies have shown that bees are no bumbling fools, but these have generally involved activities that are somewhat similar to their natural foraging behaviour. For example, bees were able to learn to pull a string to reach an artificial flower containing sugar solution. Bees sometimes have to pull parts of flowers to access nectar, so this isn't too alien to them. So while these tasks might seem complex, they don't really show a deeper level of learning, says Olli Loukola at Queen Mary University of London, an author of that study.