Pollinators include birds, bats, bees, butterflies, and a variety of other insects. We’d be in a lot of trouble if they didn’t exist. Pollinators are involved in one out of every three bites of food humans consume, and they are critical to the ecosystem’s balance. According to estimates, between 75 and 95 percent of all […]
Tag: bees
Researchers find that bumblebees’ body size could make them more vulnerable in a warming world
According to new research, the climate crisis may result in more small-bodied bees but fewer bumblebees, with potentially “cascading” implications on plant pollination and ecosystems. Over the course of eight years, scientists in the United States trapped and studied more than 20,000 bees in a region of the Rocky Mountains to see how different varieties […]
Shorebirds threatened by disc-golf course on dune habitat without public consultation
“The importance of urban nature has never been greater. During the last year and a half of the epidemic, city dwellers all across the world have sought out and loved urban nature more than ever… Now is the time to reaffirm our commitment to green space design and protection.” —Toronto Mayor John Tory, in a […]
EPA plans to allow the use of insecticides devastating to bees and butterflies to continue in America for the next 15 years
Despite steps by the European Union to limit the use of poisons responsible for widespread insect losses, the US Environmental Protection Agency is prepared to allow the use of four of the most harmful compounds to bees, butterflies, and other insects in America for the next 15 years. Despite “ecological hazards of concern, notably to […]
The insect apocalypse: ‘Our world will grind to a halt without them’
Ihave been fascinated by insects all my life. One of my earliest memories is of finding, at the age of five or six, some stripy yellow-and-black caterpillars feeding on weeds in the school playground. I put them in my empty lunchbox, and took them home. Eventually they transformed into handsome magenta and black moths. This […]
Did You Know Flowers Can Hear Bees Buzzing?
A scientist is researching to prove that plants can hear their surroundings. Preliminary evidence of research by Lilach Hadany found that flowers respond to the sound of bees wings by increasing sugar quantity in nectar. Hadany, who teaches at the cross of mathematics and biology at the University of Tel Aviv, reasons that since pollinators […]
Petition: Protect Bees in the US
Made up of almost 20,000 distinct species, the global bee population plays a huge role in supporting the reproduction of most flowering plants and crops. They are vital to our planet and those who live in on it. Sadly, their populations have been declining at astonishing rates. Researchers estimate that as many as 25% of […]
A taste of honey: how bees mend fences between farmers and elephants
Watchtowers in trees, tripwire alarms, radio collars, chilli smoke and beehive fences: scientists and conservationists across Asia and Africa are coming up with safe and humane ways to keep elephants at bay and reduce conflict with humans. In early June, the agonising death of a pregnant wild elephant that ate an explosives-filled pineapple in India […]