Bumble bees strategically use ground level linear features in navigation

Extended ground level structures like roads or field edges can be important cues for navigating animals, seen for example in road-following pigeons. In a landscape devoid of skyline cues but with a rectangular grid of pathways and roads, we used harmonic radar to track free-flying bumble bees, Bombus terrestris. Individual bees consistently used ground level linear features for navigation in a wide range of behav-ioural contexts. Bee exploration flights, search behaviour and foraging routes were shaped by linear features, with bees frequently flying along and parallel to pathways and roads. Comparisons of flight trajectories across these behavioural contexts show that individuals modulated their use of linear fea-tures strategically with respect to their individual goals and experience. Bees searching for a feeder used linear features to target their search, while foragers often followed pathways to return to their hive without overshooting. These findings on a major pollinator have important implications for the place -ments of bee colonies for agriculture and floral resources for conservation. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/).

Automated summary

Research shows that bumble bees utilize ground level linear features for navigation in the absence of skyline cues, with individual bees modulating their use of these features strategically based on their goals and experience across different behavioral contexts. These findings have important implications for the placement of bee colonies in agriculture and conservation of floral resources.