Von Frisch's Bee Communication Study

Karl von Frisch was an Austrian ethologist (animal behaviour scientist) who won the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his groundbreaking research on bee communication. His work demonstrated that honeybees use a sophisticated system of "dances" to communicate the location of food sources to other bees in the hive.

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The Waggle Dance

Von Frisch discovered that honeybees perform two types of dance to communicate information about food:

1. The Round Dance

The round dance is performed when a food source is close to the hive (within about 50 metres). The bee moves in a circular pattern, alternating between clockwise and anticlockwise circles.

• The round dance tells other bees that food is nearby but does not give information about the direction of the food
• Other bees detect the scent of the food on the dancing bee and then fly out in all directions to search for it

2. The Waggle Dance

The waggle dance is performed when a food source is further from the hive (more than about 50 metres away). It is more complex and communicates both the direction and distance of the food: