Shannon McWaters

I study how bumble bees make tricky decisions while foraging—like whether to stick with a known food source or gamble on something new and possibly better. In the lab, I set up mini bee-sized challenges using fake flowers to test how bees explore, take risks, and solve problems. I'm especially interested in how they handle uncertainty, like when they don’t know what to expect or when the flowers always give them different rewards. Since bees live in colonies and work together, I also look at how their choices might depend on what’s best for the group, not just themselves. It’s kind of like studying tiny, fuzzy economists with wings!