Richards Collins: Busy bees still make time for play

Young bees rolled balls more frequently than did older ones, just as children and pups play more enthusiastically than adult humans and dogs

Bumble bees rolling balls for enjoyment as researchers have, for the first time, observed insects interact with inanimate objects as a form of play.  Picture: Richard Rickitt/PA 

‘Play’ is a most misused adult word. To a child, it’s a way of life. To an adult, it often means unimportant recreational things we do when we are not working’ — Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Only mammals and birds are known to ‘play’. Behaviour pursued for the sheer joy it has been recorded only among vertebrates.