A bee seems to wave in gratitude after being saved

Muhammad Ali waxed eloquent about stinging like a bee. What if a bee just wants to wave, like a politician at a rally or a boxer who has just knocked his opponent out? A million people have viewed a video of a bumble bee waving one wing in seeming gratitude after a man rescued it from drowning in a bucket and put it to dry on a sunflower. Seeing, they say, is believing. However, believing is probably responsible for the seeing in this case. Some people, who have close acquaintance with the behaviour of bees — yes, there are indeed such people — remark that the way the bee’s hind leg is lifted, in the video posted on Facebook, the rescuer should thank his stars he wasn’t stung. Perhaps one wing dried before the other one, and flapped while the bee tried to fly away, but the other one was still wet, and limp. But humans prefer to see other species behave as humans do. We think, therefore, they exist as cute little anthropomorphs.

The popularity of the video also tells a tale. Clearly, these million viewers were not quite as busy as a bee: otherwise, why would they waste their lives watching bee videos? And don’t blame the global financial crisis for their joblessness. They probably are not fit to be employed, if they seriously believe that bees are given to waving cheerily across the species barrier. Worry about specie, boys and girls.