Describing bee foraging patterns by eavesdropping on the waggle dance

This project aims to understand how honeybees -key pollinators for our crops- move through the landscape. You will do this by recording, decoding and analysing the waggle dance: the communication of bees with the hive. Honeybee foraging patterns are a balance between optimising search efficiency and minimising transport costs. You will use modelling and statistics to understand how these factors are balanced and what shapes the bees' movement patterns. This interdisciplinary project, suitable for candidates interested in modelling and/or empirical work with honeybees, offers the opportunity to observe and analyse bees' behaviour and develop the tools to analyse this.