A study has found that bees can play football

Research carried out by students at Queen Mary University of London, found that bees repeatedly rolled around a small ball without any incentive to do so.

PhD student Samadi Galpayage explained: "It is certainly mind-blowing, at times amusing, to watch bumblebees show something like play. It goes to show, once more, that despite their little size and tiny brains, they are more than small robotic beings."

The bees were said to have rolled over the ball 117 times over the course of the experiment and further tests reportedly found that adult males rolled for longer than adult females, with designed an experimental arena where 45 bumblebees having been given the choice of either walking through a clear path to get food or going into areas containing wooden balls.

The scientists wrote in the paper: “We found that ball rolling did not contribute to immediate survival strategies [and] was intrinsically rewarding.”

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