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Thursday 17 October 2024
FROM FRIENDS OF THE EARTH — SAW SEEDS THIS WINTER FOR THE BEES
Wednesday 16 October 2024
THIS IS HOW YOU CAN HELP THE BUMBLEBEES
Science Manager, Dr Richard Comont, gives us an insight into why we’ve been seeing less bumblebees this year.
As the years roll by, there tends to be one thing that happened during the year that attaches itself as a label. 2020 was the year of Covid, 2022 was the 40°C heatwave. For a lot of people, 2024 was The Year of No Bees.
It all started off so well. Back in early March the skies were blue and queen bumblebees were emerging from their winter dormancy in high numbers – in fact, several species reached record numbers in March or April. But then the wheels came off. In June, volunteers across our BeeWalk network were recording around 11 bumblebees for every kilometre they walked. In a ‘normal’ year, they would be recording 21, almost twice as many. 2024 stood out as the worst June count on record.
Some species were faring even worse. The Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) is a widespread and common species, understatedly beautiful with a jet-black body and bright red tail. The flight season started well, with around a third more sightings of overwintered queens than usual in March and April. But then – nothing happened.
Red-tailed bumblebee © Jade Oliver
In a normal year, those queens would find themselves a nest site and start producing workers in May, with numbers ramping up in June and staying high through July and August, workers gradually give way to males and new queens. During 2024 they just never managed to get going. In June, sightings were 83% down. Instead of seeing a Red-tail every 250-300 metres, BeeWalkers were only seeing one individual every two kilometres.
The immediate cause seems to have been the weather. After that burst of early-spring sunshine, the spring and early summer settled down into a pattern of dull, gloomy, damp days interspersed with heavy rain. This makes life incredibly difficult for bumblebees, especially in the early stages of nesting where the queen has to balance finding a nest site, foraging for herself, foraging for her developing offspring, and incubating her brood. Cool, damp weather means the queens spend more energy keeping themselves and their brood warm, which increases the need for foraging but decreases the time available for it.
To make things even more difficult, that foraging would have become more difficult in the poor weather. Food from flowers is less accessible on cold, damp days, especially as flowers close up or get damaged in heavy rain.
Unfortunately, the BeeWalk numbers show that many queens didn’t manage to walk this tightrope and nest successfully.
How can I help bumblebees?
In response to our latest BeeWalk data, we’ve launched an urgent appeal to help secure a future for bumblebees. We can’t control the weather, but we can:
- Make habitats more resilient to climate change
- Influence decision makers to prioritise pollinators, not pesticides
- Lead the fight to secure a future for bumblebees
By donating to our appeal, you’ll be helping to secure a future for our bumblebees.
FROM BUMBLEBEE CONSERVATION —-THE BEES NEED HELP
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FROM PROTECT THE WILD — AN OPEN LETTER TO THE LABOUR PARTY TO KEEP THEIR PROMISE RE HUNTING BAN
‘Ricky Gervais amongst stars calling for stronger ban on hunting’Open letter signed by number of well-known activists and personalities
In an open letter signed by several British stars, Protect the Wild calls on the Labour government to make good on its commitment to ban trail hunting. The letter comes as the latest hunting season gets underway, which will undoubtedly see many wild animals chased and killed in the absence of the promised ban.“Dear Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, It has been two decades since the Labour Government’s historic Hunting Act 2004 was passed in England and Wales, which banned the hunting of wild mammals with dogs. However, in that time, it has become clear that hunters have sought to systematically undermine the Act via the deceitful pretext of “trail hunting” – a practice Labour pledged to put an end to in its election manifesto. Hunts continue to operate across the country, frequently breaking the law by chasing and killing wild mammals under the guise of trail hunting or using loopholes and exemptions to evade prosecution. In September, Protect the Wild released a report that illustrated the scale of the problem. It spotlighted the high levels of wildlife persecution that took place during the 2023/24 hunting season. The report showed that nearly 600 wild animals were chased or killed across the season. Foxes bore the biggest brunt, with 335 reported incidents of foxes being chased by hunts and 29 foxes reportedly killed. Critically, these figures relate solely to monitored or witnessed activities by hunts, meaning they offer only a snapshot of the illegal persecution that is occurring in the British countryside. It is time for change. The Labour Party committed in its election manifesto to ban trail hunting. In fact, you personally promised ahead of the election that your party would put an end to animal cruelty. Three months have passed since your party was elected and no ban on trail hunting is yet forthcoming. Indeed, the animal welfare measures that Labour promised to voters, including the trail hunting ban, were disappointingly absent from the King’s Speech in July. The failure of the government to act on its pledges means that high levels of wildlife persecution will undoubtedly continue in the hunting season this year, which gets fully underway in October. To put an end to the animal cruelty and criminality that is frequently observed during hunting seasons, the Labour government must ban the smokescreen that is trail hunting.We call on you and your government to take action to bring an end to the hunting of wild mammals with dogs once and for all.”Yours Sincerely, Rob Pownall, founder, Protect the Wild Dame Judi Dench, Actor Sir Mark Rylance, Actor Ricky Gervais, Comedian and actor Peter Egan, Actor and animal advocate Megan McCubbin, Zoologist and television presenter David Oakes, Actor Dan Richardson, Actor and filmmaker Eduardo Gonçalves, founder, Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting Dr Mark Jones MRCVS, Veterinarian Dale Vince OBE, Campaigner and Founder of Ecotricity Dominic Dyer, Wildlife Campaigner, Writer, and Broadcast
Pick up our 2025 Calendar! Support our vital work and get a copy for just £8.50 today! Printed here in the UK by Anglia Print (a climate positive printing company)
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