Here’s your cute (if slightly buzz-arre) video of the day: a fuzzy little bee raising its teeny leg and repeatedly high-fiving a British dude’s finger.
Why did this happen? No one knows, but let’s assemble the facts. The bee seems to be standing on a macadamia nut or something, and the man, Mark Clark, admits “I’d had a beer, or two.” We can safely assume Clark is either not allergic to bee stings or incredibly stupid (in addition to being a bit buzzed). You say “drunk,” I say “bee enthusiast.” After all, maybe the dude knows bees have been croaking rapidly and is excited that colony collapse disorder hasn’t hit his patio yet.
If you need an actual SCIENTIFIC explanation for the palm-slap, one Gawker commenter offers the following:
I’ve seen bees do this. They tend to do it on cool mornings after being inactive overnight. Bees regulate their temperature, in part, by flapping their wings at a high rate. In this case the bee probably has been resting and therefore, hasn’t warmed itself to optimal temperature. The raising of the legs must be a last ditch defense mechanism.
Unidan of Reddit concurs with the “yo, leave me alone” school of thought:
Yup, it’s a defensive pose! They’ll typically raise a middle leg as a kind of “back off” before elevating the defense!
Both of those explanations are WAY less interesting than the bee’s team winning at beer pong.
