"competition vacuum" to observe whether or not bumblebees adjusted their feeding routes based on intense direct competition between other bumblebees. This study showed that bees in areas of higher competition are more productive than the control bees. Bumblebees opportunistically adjust their use of traplining routes in response to activity of other competing bees. Another effective way to study the behavior of traplining species is via computer simulation and indoor flight cage experiments. Simulation models can be made to show the linkage between pollinator movement and pollen flow. This model considers how service by the pollinators with different foraging patterns would affect the flow of pollen. Indoor flight cage experiments allow for easier determination between test subjects and easier observation of behavior and patterns. Bees in small study environments seem to demonstrate less traplining tendencies than bees that were studied in environments that stretched over several hectares. A larger working area increases the need for traplining techniques to further conserve energy and maximize nutrient intake and that bees most often trapline due strictly to travel distance. The bees remember these complex flight paths by breaking them into small segments using vectors, landmarks and other environmental factors, each one pointing to the next destination. Despite a long history of research on bee learning and navigation, most knowledge has been deduced from the behavior of foragers traveling between their nest and a single feeding location. Only recently, studies of bumblebees foraging in arrays of artificial flowers fitted with automated tracking systems have started to describe the learning mechanisms behind complex route formation between multiple locations. The demonstration that all these observations can be accurately replicated by a single learning heuristic model holds considerable promises to further investigate these questions and fill a major gap in cognitive ecology. See also Optimal foraging theory References Eating behaviors Bird behavior