Is Geomagnetic Sensitivity Real? Replication of the Walker-Bitterman Magnetic Conditioning Experiment in Honey Bees

Although the presence of geomagnetic sensitivity has been suspectedfor a long time in a variety of marine and terrestrial animals,many responses reported in the literature have been based onextensive statistical analysis of orientation results or relyon obscure behavioral activities (like cetacean strandings orhoney bee waggle dances.) None of these reports have yet approachedthe level of clarity and simplicity displayed in experimentswith the magnetotactic bacteria, which is the best example ofgeomagnetic sensitivity in any living organism. Furthermore,claims of magnetic effects on living organisms pervade the literatureof biomagnetism, but many have failed subsequent attempts atreplication. We need to develop simple and easily replicatedexperiments for marine and terrestrial animals which can bemodified to answer basic questions concerning the psychophysicsof any geomagnetic sensory system which might be present. Inthis paper, we report the first replication of the Walker-Bittermanmagnetic anomaly conditioning experiment in honey bees, as wellas one of our attempts to slightly alter their basic protocol.We also report our attempts to condition honey bees to magneticdirection in simple maze experiments, and the initial resultsof a pulse-remagnetization experiment designed to test the ferromagnetictransduction hypothesis. We conclude honey bees are sensitiveto the geomagnetic field, that the signal processing for itis more complex than previously thought, and that a ferromagnetictransducer is compatible with all known behavioral data.