Risky to imagine there are exemplary species, but I like to keep in touch with honeybees. Part of my reason is suggested well by this description drawn from the prospectus of a Nassau Beekeepers' conference coming up in May. If I had the whole vocational shtick to do over again - not a high priority - I'd likely want to know a lot more about memory and neurobiology, wonderful foci for psychologists. Honey bees have no particular use for memory, but they are gifted in their productive adaptation to their natural environment and exemplary, if instinctual and untutored, practitioners of the precautionary principle.* (Stimulus thanks to my friend and colleague Andrea Panaritis, who hangs out with bees.)
How Honeybees Choose a Forest Home
"In the late spring and early summer, when a honeybee
colony becomes overcrowded in its hive, itwill cast a swarm. When this happens, about a third of the worker bees stay at home and rear a new queen, thereby perpetuating the mother colony, while the other two-thirds of the workforce – a crowd of some ten thousand – rushes off with the old queen to set up a daughter colony.
"The migrating bees travel only about 100 feet before coalescing into a beard-like cluster hanging from a tree branch. Here they will remain bivouacked for a few days.
"During this time, several hundred of its oldest bees will spring into action as nest-site scouts, explore about 30 square miles of the surrounding landscape for potential nesting cavities in trees and buildings, locate a dozen or more possibilities, and democratically select a favorite for their new dwelling place. We will see how can a bunch of tiny-brained bees, hanging from a tree branch, can make such a complex decision and can make it well. Presented by Dr. Tom Seeley, Cornell University Department of Neurobiology and Behavior."
*The 1998 Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle summarizes the principle this way: "When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically." (The Wingspread Conference on the Precautionary Principle was convened by the Science and Environmental Health Network, a fine alliance of environmentalists and activists and an occasional grantee of The Christopher Reynolds Foundation, which I'm privileged to serve as president).