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窃听可能是不礼貌的，但是窥探蜜蜂的对话可以揭示很多关于环境的信息。它们用摇摆舞来沟通的特殊方式，包含着其所居住环境情况优劣的线索。实际上，蜜蜂会以不同的方式来表示赞许或者反对。
工蜂通过跳摇摆舞来告诉伙伴最好的食物在哪里。这表明这种舞蹈是可以显示哪些地方的环境是健康的，至少对于传粉者来说。
为了证明这一点，英国布莱顿萨塞克斯大学的玛格丽特和她的同事们在三个实验地录制和解码了5484个摇摆舞，这几处的蜂群分布在94平方公里的乡村和城市。他们为该地区划分了各种保护方案，并由政府规定，同时也绘制了这两年来蜜蜂最常光顾的地点。
来自加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校的詹姆斯称，“研究人员对于运用蜂群作为环境状况的生物监测手段很感兴趣，但是这项研究需要很大的样本量以及更加复杂的方式来检查数据”。
Eavesdropping may be rude， but snooping on honeybee conversations could reveal a lot about the environment. Their unique mode of communication， the waggle dance， contains clues about the health of the landscape they live in. In effect， the bees are giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to different methods of conversation.
A worker honeybee performs the waggle dance to tell her hive mates where the best food is located. That suggests the dance can indicate areas of the landscape that are healthy， at least in terms of food for pollinators.
To test this， Margaret Couvillon and her colleagues from the University of Sussex in Brighton， UK， videoed and decoded 5484 waggle dances from three laboratory-maintained honeybee colonies living in 94 square kilometres of rural and urban landscapes. They divided the area into various conservation schemes， regulated by the UK government， and mapped which areas were most frequented by the bees over two years.
"Using honeybee colonies as bio monitors for environmental health is an idea that researchers have been interested in，" says James Nieh from the University of California， San Diego. "However， this study uses a far larger sample size and examines the data in a more sophisticated way."
工蜂通过跳摇摆舞来告诉伙伴最好的食物在哪里。这表明这种舞蹈是可以显示哪些地方的环境是健康的，至少对于传粉者来说。
为了证明这一点，英国布莱顿萨塞克斯大学的玛格丽特和她的同事们在三个实验地录制和解码了5484个摇摆舞，这几处的蜂群分布在94平方公里的乡村和城市。他们为该地区划分了各种保护方案，并由政府规定，同时也绘制了这两年来蜜蜂最常光顾的地点。
来自加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校的詹姆斯称，“研究人员对于运用蜂群作为环境状况的生物监测手段很感兴趣，但是这项研究需要很大的样本量以及更加复杂的方式来检查数据”。
Eavesdropping may be rude， but snooping on honeybee conversations could reveal a lot about the environment. Their unique mode of communication， the waggle dance， contains clues about the health of the landscape they live in. In effect， the bees are giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to different methods of conversation.
A worker honeybee performs the waggle dance to tell her hive mates where the best food is located. That suggests the dance can indicate areas of the landscape that are healthy， at least in terms of food for pollinators.
To test this， Margaret Couvillon and her colleagues from the University of Sussex in Brighton， UK， videoed and decoded 5484 waggle dances from three laboratory-maintained honeybee colonies living in 94 square kilometres of rural and urban landscapes. They divided the area into various conservation schemes， regulated by the UK government， and mapped which areas were most frequented by the bees over two years.
"Using honeybee colonies as bio monitors for environmental health is an idea that researchers have been interested in，" says James Nieh from the University of California， San Diego. "However， this study uses a far larger sample size and examines the data in a more sophisticated way."