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YOU might not think it, but bumblebees and serial killers have something in common: neither like to divulge their address and both tend to stay close to home. Now a study of the habits of one could be used to track down the other.

Geographical profiling (GP) is a technique used by the police to find serial offenders. The search is narrowed down using two common traits: most attacks happen fairly close to the perpetrator’s home, but beyond a “buffer zone” which prevents the attacker being recognised or noticed by nosy neighbours. By mapping out the locations of crime scenes, police aim to identify the buffer zone and prioritise their search in this area.

Bumblebees also leave a buffer zone around their nest to prevent predators finding it, so Nigel Raine, from Queen Mary, University of London, UK, and his colleagues wondered if they could be used to test the effectiveness of the GP model. They set up a colony of bumblebees and allowed them to forage in a “meadow” of fake flowers containing artificial nectar. The bees were tagged and then monitored as they travelled between their nest and the flowers.

By combining computer simulations of the bees’ movements with GP, the team found they were able to locate the entrance to the bees’ nest, showing the police technique was effective (Journal of the Royal Society Interface, ).

The researchers also found a possible way to improve the GP technique. They observed different types of foraging behaviour among the bees that they say could be used to refine the algorithms used in GP, helping to make the method more accurate.

The system could help track down more agreeable creatures, too. David Hill from the University of Sussex, UK, says it could be used to locate and protect the homes of species such as bats, although “woodland species with multiple shifting roosts could present much more of a challenge”.