It might not look like it at first, but bumblebees share some of the behavioral features of serial killers. A new study, applying a geographical profiling technique, found that bumblebees, much in the same way as serial killers, like to maintain their address hidden and mostly roam in the vicinity of their home while launching an attack, although outside a buffer zone so as to make sure they are not recognized by the neighbors during the attack.

Geographical profiling techniques are generally used by the police while trying to identify and capture a serial offender. The crime scenes often indicate whether or not the criminalists should search for the same perpetrator, thus by mapping the locations of the crimes, investigators may quickly establish the limits of the buffer zone and concentrate their searches in the respective area.

The same appears to be available for bumblebees, according to Nigel Raine of the Queen Mary University of London, UK, the leader of the research team. Bumblebees are generally likely to create a buffer between them and the nest, so that predators will have a harder time finding it. Following this conclusion, the research team decided to evaluate the effectiveness of the geographical profiling technique with the help of bees.

"For obvious ethical reasons, you can't carry out controlled tests of the GP model on serial killers, but we can test it on bumblebees," said Raine. After establishing a colony of bees within an environment with fake flowers and artificial nectar, the team started to monitor the movement of individual bumblebees from the nest to the flowers.

The produced data was then used to create computer simulations of how the bees move, and showed the exact location to the nest, proving that the geographical profiling technique is effective. Also, the study indicated that the algorithms used by police for geographical profiling can be improved, resulting in an even more accurate technique.

Other researchers, such as David Hill of the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, claim that the same technique could be used to track and protect species like the great white sharks or bats, and other animals whose environments are threatened.