Study
Can honey bees count landmarks?
Chittka, Lars; Geiger, Karl
Animal Behaviour, 1995
Bees were trained to fly to a feeder past a row of identical tent-shaped landmarks. The number and spacing of the landmarks was then changed, and where the bees searched was recorded.
- Studied in
- Apis mellifera
- Sample size
- trained foragers flying a marked route
Search location shifted when the number of landmarks changed, indicating the bees used landmark count as part of their distance estimate — although flight distance dominated.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Honey bees can use the number of landmarks passed as a cue to distance.
How NatureHQ reads it
The first serious evidence that an insect uses number-like information. It is deliberately titled as a question, and the honest reading is that landmark count contributes to a distance estimate rather than that bees count in any deliberate sense. It set up the numerical-cognition work that followed twenty years later.
- Number and total distance are hard to disentangle completely.
- Small numbers of landmarks only.
- Cannot distinguish counting from a rhythmic or serial-position cue.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
A sense of number
Many animals can tell "more" from "less" — far fewer can actually count
Honey bee
Honey bees treat "nothing" as the smallest quantity
Honey bee
Honey bees use the number of landmarks they pass as one cue to distance
Flowers
A flower is a plant’s reproductive organ, and its colour and scent are advertising
Published by: Elsevier journalsPublished in an Elsevier journal.
doi.org/10.1016/0003-3472(95)80163-4
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.