What is the Waggle Dance?
The waggle dance is a dance done by honey bees! When a honey bee finds a food source (like a patch of yummy flowers) it brings some food back to the hive. When it arrives, it needs a way to let the other honey bees know where it found food so that they can go get some also. This is where the waggle dance comes in. The honey bee does a special dance to show the other bees where the food is located.
What does it look like?
Take a look at this short video. The honey bee that wiggles and then walks in a circle is doing a waggle dance.
How is it Decoded?
The bee begins by waggling its body from side to side in a straight line. Then it circles its way back to where it began. The angle of the waggle in reference to the location of the sun specifies the direction/degree to travel from the hive. The length of time that the bee spends waggling before circling back to its starting point signifies the distance from the hive. Biologists believe that for every 1 second waggled, the source is located 1K from the hive.
Let's Dance!
This is a simulation of how the bees would make a waggle dance. Click on a patch of flowers (food source) to see an example of the waggle dance a bee would do upon arrival back in the hive after visiting that food source!
