Are bees aware about the consequences of using their stinger on a large target? Consequently, are they aware that stinging smaller animals won’t cause them to die?

Question

Do they instinctively “know” they will die by stinging a human?

In: Biology

Answer 1

We always like to humanise animals, as if they would think and feel the same way as us. But of course they do not, or at least we have no way of knowing if they do, but most likely they do not.

Bees have an instinctive drive to sting enemies if they feel their colony could be in danger, but as to whether they do this full knowing they will die doing so, or if that thought never crosses their mind: we don’t know. I personally doubt it, but we can’t even really measure this thought process going on in humans, let alone in animals as hard-to-communicate-with as bees.