Bees 'aid serial killer profiling'
Updated on 30 July 2008
Foraging bumblebees behave in the same way as serial killers hunting new victims, scientists have found.
The discovery opens up the possibility of improving suspect profiling by watching the flight of the bumblebee.
Police forces around the world employ a technique called geographic profiling (GP) in investigations of serial crimes. Using the technique, the locations of a serial killer's murders can indicate where he is most likely to live.
GP relies on two key elements. The first is the fact that most serial murders take place close to the perpetrator's home. The second is that the killer's home is surrounded by a "buffer zone" in which the likelihood of a murder is comparatively low because of the danger of discovery.
Bumblebees follow a similar pattern, scientists have now found. Like serial killers, they appear to create a "buffer zone" around their hive where they do not search for nectar. This reduces the risk of predators and parasites finding their nest.
Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London, adapted GP for the study of bumblebees with the help of Kim Rossmo, the former detective who invented the technique.
Dr Nigel Raine, one of the researchers, whose findings are reported in the Journal of the Royal Society, said: "GP is interesting to biologists because it can tell us which strategies animals use when foraging. The approach works well for very different animals, from bees and bats to great white sharks."
Bee-watching could also be used to test GP techniques - something which is impossible to do in real criminal situations. The lab experiments could allow criminologists to perfect their GP methods and predict the hideaways of serial killers with more precision.
GP can be used to find the entrance to a hive from observing the locations of flowers visited by bees.
This has implications for bee conservation, according to the researchers. GP could be used to locate bee nests, or areas of potential nesting habitat.
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