In the rugged heights of the Himalayas, the supersized bee species Himalayan giant honey bee (scientific name Apis laboriosa) has mastered a startlingly elegant defense tactic, one that looks like choreography and functions like a shield.
These bees choose to build their nests on south-facing vertical cliff overhangs, where exposure to the elements might seem like a liability.
Some colonies can host over two million bees, all collaborating on this seemingly precarious habitat. Hornets are a major predator, always on the lookout for a stray bee to attack.
We all know that bees will go to enormous lengths to protect their nests. But none quite as elegantly as this species.
BBC Earth shows us this extraordinary moment as Himalayan giant honey bees do a synchronized wave across their entire nest, giving a shocking look to the huge nest, and disorienting the attacking hornets.
When a hornet draws near, the bees don’t fight individually. Instead guard bees at the nest surface raise their abdomens in a coordinated threat display.
The signal ripples across the surface of the nest in a synchronized wave, making it nearly impossible for the predator to pick off a single bee.
It’s a beautiful example of organized collective behavior: hundreds of thousands of individuals acting as one, creating a shifting, living defense-screen. Their Japanese cousins take the same idea one step further and cook invading hornets alive inside a ball of bees, one of the 29 extraordinary defense mechanisms we gathered in one guide.
Our backyard bees have it a little easier, and we can help. A patch of Outsidepride’s pollinator garden seeds keeps local bees fed, and a bamboo bee hotel from Big Bat Box gives solitary bees a safe place to nest. (We may earn a commission if you buy through these links.)
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