Where does this come from, and can I check it?

The angle of the waggle run matches the angle of the flowers to the Sun. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a animals fact?

Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

A honeybee dances to give directions

The angle of the waggle run matches the angle of the flowers to the Sun A forager returning with nectar runs a figure of eight and waggles along the middle. The duration of the waggle encodes distance, roughly a second per kilometre. Karl von Frisch decoded the dance and won a Nobel Prize for it in 1973. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

Nature & Animals trivia

More facts like this

Flowers carry nectar guides visible only in ultravioletTo a bee the petals show a pattern pointing at the centre Bees warm the hive by shivering their flight musclesA winter cluster holds about 35 Celsius in the middle with the queen inside Honeybees can carry tiny radio tagsThe transponders weigh a fraction of the bee's own mass and log hive entries Elephants talk in frequencies we cannot hearTheir low rumbles travel through the ground and through the air for kilometres Each dolphin has its own signature whistleThe whistle works as a name that others copy when they want attention Treehoppers send vibrations through stemsMothers signal to nymphs by shaking the plant rather than the air

Tags: bees, communication, navigation

A honeybee dances to give directions: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The angle of the waggle run matches the angle of the flowers to the Sun. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a animals fact?: Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.