Research Journal Article Paper
Honey bee waggle dance communication: signal meaning
and signal noise affect dance follower behaviour
ENVS 2210
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, 2
Background
Within many social species, conveying information about a profitable food source or
location is quite common. Different insect species communicate with varying methods, but a
commonly known one is the honey bee waggle dance. To provide some context of the specifics
of the waggle dance, it is when a worker bee shakes her abdomen while moving in a straight line.
After the straight line, she will make a sharp turn to the left or the right to reset where she began
the dance and repeat. The number of times she performs this dance determines the quality of the
resource. The straight line and turning motions indicate direction and distance.
The article includes some interesting information from previous studies that provide
useful context. In one study, the results showed that only 12-25% of the dance followers would
find the food source. This could be due to some foragers going back to familiar flowers. Another
interesting point from a study showed that there has to be a minimum of five waggle runs for the
followers to have an accurate estimate of the food source location. By mentioning some
background knowledge it guides the reader to the objective of this study and how they came to
their hypothesis.
Objective
The general objective of this study is to understand how the waggle dance impacts the
behaviour of dance followers. To be more specific, the exact objective of the study is to discover
1) what influences the number of waggle runs 2) what influences the number of dance followers
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 07-14-2023 06:23:06 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/65211083/ENVS-2210-WrittenResearchAssignmentpdf/
Honey bee waggle dance communication: signal meaning
and signal noise affect dance follower behaviour
ENVS 2210
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 07-14-2023 06:23:06 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/65211083/ENVS-2210-WrittenResearchAssignmentpdf/
, 2
Background
Within many social species, conveying information about a profitable food source or
location is quite common. Different insect species communicate with varying methods, but a
commonly known one is the honey bee waggle dance. To provide some context of the specifics
of the waggle dance, it is when a worker bee shakes her abdomen while moving in a straight line.
After the straight line, she will make a sharp turn to the left or the right to reset where she began
the dance and repeat. The number of times she performs this dance determines the quality of the
resource. The straight line and turning motions indicate direction and distance.
The article includes some interesting information from previous studies that provide
useful context. In one study, the results showed that only 12-25% of the dance followers would
find the food source. This could be due to some foragers going back to familiar flowers. Another
interesting point from a study showed that there has to be a minimum of five waggle runs for the
followers to have an accurate estimate of the food source location. By mentioning some
background knowledge it guides the reader to the objective of this study and how they came to
their hypothesis.
Objective
The general objective of this study is to understand how the waggle dance impacts the
behaviour of dance followers. To be more specific, the exact objective of the study is to discover
1) what influences the number of waggle runs 2) what influences the number of dance followers
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 07-14-2023 06:23:06 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/65211083/ENVS-2210-WrittenResearchAssignmentpdf/
