bees realised meat was available and decided to stop being vegetarian

An example of anthropomorphism in public science discourse:

"These are more specialised bees that once they were vegetarian for a really long time and they actually decided to change their ways, there's all of this meat in the forest, why not take advantage?…

so potentially this specialised group of bees realised that, and maybe there's enough competition on the flowers that they decided to switch…"

Dr Laura Figueroa

Dr Laura Figueroa (Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts Amherst) was interviewed on an episode of 'Science in Action'. (See 'Of opportunistic viruses and meat-eating bees'.)

Read about anthropomorphism

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Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.