invité: Mathieu Lihoreau (CRCA, Univ.Toulouse III): How do bees move across the landscape (...)

Titre complet: How do bees move across the landscape and fashion plant reproduction?

Par Mathieu Lihoreau (chercheur, Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA ), Université Toulouse III).

More than a century of research on bees, bats and birds shows how nectar foraging involves various types of learning and memories to recognize and choose flowers. Paradoxically however, little is known about how these pollinators discover flowers and navigate between them, sometimes following routes over several kilometers. Here I will describe experiments and computational models designed to explore the cognitive mechanisms supporting efficient navigation, foraging and competition by tiny brained bees. These new insights in the movement ecology of bees open exciting perspectives to improve conservation and agricultural practices in the context of looming pollination crisis.