Playtime isn’t just for children.

Lab-kept bumble bees roll small wooden balls around for no apparent purpose other than fun, a new study reveals. The finding supports evidence that bees experience pleasure, researchers say, highlighting the importance of protecting them in the wild and treating them well when they’re kept in hives.

Other scientists are not so sure. (But that’s the nature of science!) However the experiment seems well-enough designed to rule out the possibility that it’s anything else than just for the sheer fun of it.

We’ll have to wait for the experiment to be replicated by other labs before we can be sure.