The bees and the birds, like us only

It turns out that behind their exoskeletons, bees might be a lot more complex than people thought.

2 min readJul 10, 2026 06:15 AM IST

First published on: Jul 10, 2026 at 06:15 AM IST

Among the elements that constitute the homo sapiens’ self-definition, there is one that is often ignored. Human beings have an unending capacity for narcissistic conceit. The “inner life”, it has long been believed, is the province of very few animals. With reluctance, people acknowledge that “higher mammals” — elephants, primates, dolphins and some whales — are worth empathy. For lowly insects, though, the fascination is rarely with the individual. The ant colony and beehive are marvellous for their complexity, but the ant and the bee are merely constituents of a collective.

It turns out that behind their exoskeletons, bees might be a lot more complex than people thought. A paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that in certain settings, bumblebees react to certain tastes in seemingly similar ways to some mammals, including human babies — they seem to like sugar water, and retreat from saltiness. Researchers concluded that bees may have a “subjective inner state”.

Bees are ready to join the growing ranks of smart non-mammals. Corvids — crows, ravens, etc — use tools, have moods and likes and dislikes. Parrots and their kin have a propensity for languages. Perhaps it’s tough to see these creatures as close kin because they look so different and are seen only in large groups. But then, as the crow or the bee flies and looks down, it might just look at a crowd of humans and not see people at all.