Washington DC, June 15 -- Researchers tracked honey bees in the wild using a drone-based system and found that each bee follows its own highly consistent flight path. Some repeated their routes so precisely that they flew only centimetres from where they had flown before.

Landmarks like trees helped keep them on track, while uniform areas such as cornfields led to more variation. Honey bees are far more precise navigators than scientists once realised.

Researchers at the University of Freiburg have discovered that individual honey bees follow their own highly consistent flight routes and can repeat them with remarkable accuracy, relying on landmarks in the landscape to stay on course.

The study was led by neurobiologist and behavioural...