When we go out traveling,we need either a map or GPS to point us in the right direction.But bumblebees（大黄蜂）have neither of these things,yet they still know the best route.Why is that?

It turns out that these hard-working little bees try many possible passages before picking out the best one and remembering it the next time they journey out.They learn from“trial and error”,according to a study by scientists from the University of London.

We use it all the time in our daily lives—trial and error is a helpful problem-solving method.It is the basic concept of“learning from your mistakes”.Most of the time,we fail on our first try,so we analyze the failure,make adjustments and try again.After repeating this a few times,we finally get things right.

This might sound a bit tiring,but it’s certainly effective and it works for bumblebees.

In the study,scientists set up five artificial flowers in a field.Each one of them was fitted with motion-triggered（运动触发的）cameras and had landing platforms with drops of sugar in the middle to attract the bees.

At first,scientists noticed the bees’ flying routes were long and complex.But after they gained enough experience,they gradually got to their destination quicker.Every time a bee tried a new route that was shorter than the route it had tried before,it was likely to use it again.Otherwise the new route would simply be given up and another one was tested.

“The speed at which they learn through trial and error is quite extraordinary for bumblebees,as this complex behavior was thought to be one that only larger-brained animals have,”Professor Lars Chittka,leader of the study,told Sciencedaily.com.

In fact,the smart bumblebees don’t try every possible route.Normally,they would only try about 20 out of the 120 possible routes to visit the flowers.

More interestingly,scientists found that if they removed a flower,bees would continue looking at that location,even if it has been empty for a long time.“It seems bees don’t easily forget a fruitful flower,”Chittka said.

Dolphins are universally regarded as some of the cleverest creatures in the world. In captivity (圈养), they can be trained to complete complex tasks such as jumping through hoops and somersaulting through the air.

But their intelligence doesn’t stop there. In a recent study of cetaceans (鲸目动物)—a group of animals that includes dolphins and whales—researchers created a list of intelligent behaviors observed in 90 different cetacean species, reported the Guardian. For example, the smartest cetaceans hunt in groups, share knowledge through mimicry (模仿) and even care for each other’s children. Some even consider their behavior to be human-like.

“There is the saying that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ seems to be true for both whales and humans,” Michael Muthukrishna of the London School of Economics, co-author of the study, told the Guardian.

However, cetaceans don’t just use their brain power for survival. The study suggests that dolphins might even gossip. That’s because some species greet each other with specific whistles, just as humans greet each other by name, the Guardian reported. Sometimes, a group of dolphins whistles the “name” of a dolphin that isn’t there. Could they be speaking about their “friend” behind its back?

For the researchers, dolphin small talk is a big deal. As they found that the most social cetaceans also have the largest brains, they argue that cetacean intelligence developed to meet the demands of complex social groups.

Known as the “cultural brain hypothesis (假设),” it had only been used to explain the intelligence of humans and other primates (灵长目动物). The new study aimed to find a common pathway for the evolution of intelligence among biologically different species.

“It is interesting to think that whale and human brains are different in their structure but have brought us to the same patterns in behavior,” Luke Rendell, a biologist at the University of St Andrews, told the Guardian.

Indeed, we still have a lot to learn about our intelligent ocean-dwelling neighbors. “We don’t have to look at other planets to look for aliens,” Muthukrishna told the Guardian, “because we know that underwater there are these amazing species with so many parallels to us in their complex behaviors.”