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The Bees’ Dancing Map

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A honeybee standing on the wax cells of a honeycomb.

How can a bee give directions without speaking? After finding food, a honeybee returns to its hive and can perform a waggle dance. Its movements tell other bees where to go.

Inside the hive, the bee moves forward while shaking its body from side to side. This straight part of the dance is called the waggle run. The bee then circles back and repeats the movement, returning on the other side.

The angle of the waggle run shows the direction of the food compared with the position of the Sun. On the vertical honeycomb, a run straight upwards means the food is towards the Sun. The longer each waggle run lasts, the farther away the food is.

A dance with two messages

The waggle run and return loops The bee moves upwards along the orange central path while shaking its body, then loops back along a grey path. It alternates left and right return loops. Waggle run Shake, move forward, circle back. Dance path inside the hive
Direction
The angle shows which way to fly, using the Sun as a guide.
Straight up on the comb → towards the Sun outside.
Distance
The time spent on each waggle run shows how far to fly.
More time waggling → a longer journey.
The orange line shows the waggle run. The grey loops bring the bee back to the start. This simplified example shows a dance on a vertical honeycomb.

Researchers at the University of Sussex study these dances using video recordings. By measuring the angle and timing each waggle run, they can work out where the bees have found food. The dances help them understand the landscape around the hive.

In one study, bees travelled farther in summer than in spring or autumn. This suggested that suitable food was harder to find in summer in the area studied. However, bees in other places may face different conditions. The same seasonal pattern does not necessarily apply everywhere.

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Sources and photo

Written for English learners using the sources below.

Last checked:

Photo: Richard Bartz and Hubert Seibring · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Resized; thumbnail cropped.

Check your understanding

1. What tells other bees how far away the food is?
2. Why do the researchers measure both the angle and the time of a waggle run?
3. What can we conclude from the longer summer journeys in the study?

Factual articles with sources. CEFR levels are estimates.

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