Ever seen a non-human funeral before?

Actually, the better question is, are non-human creatures capable enough, biologically and socially, to pay their last respects?

That is a question that a viral video hopes to shed light on.

The video shows how an army of ants interacted with the remains of a bee.

A moment that truly baffled people.

The viral video was uploaded by Nicole Webinger.

The video, which was originally posted on Facebook, shows a rather curious sight.

A dead bumblebee was lying on what appeared to be a bed of pink petals.

The strange video also showed the ants carrying more petals to the mound that they’d already created.

Is this what an animal funeral looks like?

The original poster was shocked by what she saw, and so was everyone else.

“This video was taken outside of my work by the garden. There was a dead bumblebee and the ants were bringing flower petals to lay around him. It looked like some sort of bee funeral,” Webinger explained on the post that has since been taken down.

People in the comment section of the YouTube video also assumed as much about the behavior of the bees and the ants.

They appear to be holding a funeral.

“Interesting, no matter the reasons. We understand only the tip of the iceberg about animal behavior!” said one comment.

It wasn’t the first time.

Twitter user @sopheklahr posted a couple of photos showing the same thing.

Two dead bumblebees laid close to each other but they both got their own yellow petal carpet.

I have put Twitter back on my phone specifically to show you these circular arrangements of petals i found around multiple dead bees. if you are a scientist who knows what the hell is going on here, please tell me! pic.twitter.com/h3D8u89WxG

— sophie klahr (@sophieklahr) August 28, 2022

“I have put Twitter back on my phone specifically to show you these circular arrangements of petals I found around multiple dead bees.” She said in the caption, “If you are a scientist who knows what the hell is going on here, please tell me!”

Thankfully, the science side of the internet is always willing to help.

“I’ll use it for teaching first-year biology next year to illustrate the power of suggestion.” Mark Elgar, a behavioral ecologist, said, “The caption tells us that the ants are burying the bee in flower petals – how wonderful is that?”

I have seen other insects buried by ants, too. As per @ScottESolomon & @Myrmecos, ants bury their prey to hide it from the competition.pic.twitter.com/gpxYYDARmh

— Scott P. Egan (@scottpegan) August 28, 2022

But, that’s an unlikely conclusion.

He explained that there could be a lot of reasons for this phenomenon and animals holding a funeral might be the farthest one from reality.

One possibility is that both insects communicate using pheromones.

Since they have similar behavioral structures, they might be feeding off each other’s signals.

One such signal is the insect’s nature of necrophoresis, where they tidy up their colonies by disposing of dead organic matter.

Social insects like bees and ants emit oleic acid to signal to others that they are already dead.

When insects receive this signal, they then work on dragging the dead body to a dedicated “tomb”, which usually is just a mound of their waste.

Who are they doing this for?

“I think it is one of two things,” Thomas O’shea-Wheller, postdoctoral researcher of entomology at Louisiana State University said, “Either a ‘rubbish mound’ for the ants, upon which they are stacking various decomposing items. Or, a food store upon which they are storing items that they have foraged for.”

See how these ants baffle people with a “bee funeral” in the video below!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: YouTube – Viral Hog, IFLScience, Science Alert, Twitter – @sophieklahr, Twitter – @scottpegan