Honey Bees ‘Whoop’ When Bumping Into Each Other

Honeybees are amazing little creatures. They dance, produce honey, detect disease, and let out a polite “whoop” when they bump into one another. Researcher Martin Bencsik and his team at Nottingham Trent University were recording the wing vibrations of honeybees when they discovered this exclamation of surprise.

A vibrational pulse produced by honeybees’ wings, long thought to be a signal to other bees to stop what they are doing, might actually be an expression of surprise.

Bencsik talks more about his discoveries in a 2021 interview.