bumblebees going from NZ to UK

Chlidonias · 28 Dec 2009

this is really cool. I'm not an entomologist (that's my brother's job ) so I can't vouch for the accuracy of the reporting - it may in fact be complete nonsense - but apparently the short-tongued bumblebee is now extinct in the UK and so the introduced NZ ones are now being sent back to repopulate the English countryside. Someone may want to correct me here, but if the UK population was a distinct subspecies from the continental ones then its quite a big conservation story (as the NZ ones were sourced solely from the UK a century ago). This is much like the endangered parma and brush-tailed rock wallabies going from NZ to Australia, or more particularly the subspecies of tammar wallaby in NZ that is extinct in Australia being sent back.

NOTE: the article says "short-tailed bumblebee", which I assume is meant to be "short-tongued bumblebee". Again, anyone better informed feel free to correct me

NOTE 2: the link is of the news video if you want to watch

NZ bumblebees to repopulate motherland - National - Video - 3 News

New Zealand has many examples of introduced species, some wanted, most unwanted.

But there are not so many examples of those species being taken back once they are here.

Now an ambitious, first of its kind project is planning to relocate introduced bumblebees back to the mother country.

Introduced from the UK 100 years ago, the short-tailed bumblebee has made itself quite at home in the MacKenzie Country.

But, sadly, these hairy little beasts are now extinct in their homeland.

“Since the end of the second world war, farmers were given grants to just plough up every available space in the UK and, of course, intensive farming follows with pesticides, fertilisers, this basically meant there wasn't enough forage for a lot of our bumblebees,” says Nikki Gammans of the Bumblebees Conservation Trust.

The irony being bumblebees are a farmers best friend.

“To the European economy, they're actually worth about $14 billion Euros,” says Ms Gammans.

“They're incredibly important and they pollinate many of our strawberries, our cherries and our tomatoes.”

Ninety eight percent of the UK’s meadows have been lost, affecting more than just bees.

“With the loss of the flowers meant the loss of the bees along with other wildlife,” says Rob Jones of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Now Project Bumblebee is aiming to repopulate England's meadows.

These MacKenzie Country bumbles are perfect – they are the direct descendants of the original imports.

Once collected, they are put into hibernation and taken to Christchurch where they will be used to breed a colony of queen bees for reintroduction.

Project members say the UK's experience should provide an important lesson.

“The bumblebee is a key species because it's part of that pollination chain and without it we wouldn't have our foods. So it's a big message for New Zealand, a big message for the world really,” says Mr Jones.

With several very similar-looking species, the bumble hunters have their work cut out.

“They've all got this black notch and yellow bar beneath the head and that's the thing I'm looking for first,” says Andy Tebbs, a Project Bumblebee volunteer.

Once captured, the high country bumblebees from New Zealand will be able to do their bit to restore Britain's biodiversity.
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Hix · 28 Dec 2009

Just don't re-export the Varroa Mite with them!

Hix

Chlidonias · 28 Dec 2009

do Varroa mites parasitise bumblebees as well, or just honeybees? I'm not sure.

Hix · 30 Dec 2009

I don't know, I just thought it might be pertinent.

Hix

Chlidonias · 30 Dec 2009

a quick Google check says that the Varroa mite spp have been found on bumblebees but they can only reproduce in connection with honeybees; in other words the bumblebees can carry them but not support their life cycle. (Its a pity they don't parasitise European wasps as well, from a NZ perspective at least - would solve a big problem over here)

I think its probably safe to say that any mites of any species that may be found on the NZ bumblebees would be removed prior to export to the UK

Chlidonias · 30 May 2012

update time!
Rare bumblebee reintroduced to UK - Nature - Environment - The Independent

28 May 2012

A bumblebee which vanished from the English countryside almost a quarter of a century ago has been reintroduced.

Around 100 short-haired bumblebees (Bombus subterraneus) were brought across from Sweden to repopulate areas where it previously thrived in the UK, and around 50 of the healthiest were released at the RSPB's Dungeness reserve in Kent.

The conservation project to bring back the bee has involved the creation of flower-rich meadows and field margins in the landscape, which have boosted populations of other threatened bumblebees.

The short-haired bumblebee was last recorded in the UK in the Dungeness area in 1988, having suffered declines over the previous 60 years as its habitat was lost, and was officially declared extinct in 2000.

Although it vanished from this country, small populations have clung on in the South Island of New Zealand after being transported there on the first refrigerated lamb boats in the late 19th century to pollinate crops of red clover.

But efforts to transport queens back from the other side of the world failed in 2009 when the bees died before they made it out of quarantine.

For the latest reintroduction attempt, conservationists turned to a healthy population of the bee living in the southern Swedish province of Skane.

Queen bees were captured using bee nets at the end of April for the Natural England-backed project, which is also supported by the RSPB, Hymettus and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

They were placed in temporary hibernation and brought over to a quarantine facility at the Royal Holloway University in Surrey, where they were checked over before being released.

In the UK, the conservationists have been working with farmers across Romney Marsh and Dungeness over the past three years to create flowering field margins suitable for bees.

RSPB conservation director Martin Harper said: "We have put a lot of work here recreating flower meadows which are vital if we are going to bring bumblebees back to our countryside.

"This area was the last place the short-haired bumblebee was recorded before it disappeared 24 years ago, so it is very exciting to see it finally coming home.

"But this is just the start - we will all be working hard to make sure this, and other threatened bumblebee species, expand their ranges and recolonise south eastern England."

Dr Nikki Gammans, the project officer, said that reintroducing species into the UK had worked in the past with the red kite and the large blue butterfly.

"It's a really exciting new scientific procedure, something which hadn't been attempted before with bumblebees," she told BBC Breakfast.

"It's very exciting for the bee species to get a second chance."
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Chlidonias said:

NOTE: the article says "short-tailed bumblebee", which I assume is meant to be "short-tongued bumblebee". Again, anyone better informed feel free to correct me
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seeing nobody corrected me in 2009 I'll correct myself now: this latest article says that they are short-haired bumblebees

Maguari · 6 Jun 2012

The BBC Breakfast coverage of this reintroduction was pleasingly extensive, even if the bee they tried to release live on air was having none of it!

Hopefully they'll do well.

Pertinax · 10 Jun 2012

You haven't got any of the British race of the Large Blue Butterfly down there have you? It became extinct in the UK in 1979 and has been successfully reintroduced since , but using stock from Sweden which is a different race, so we have lost our original one.

Chlidonias · 13 Jun 2012

Pertinax said: ↑

You haven't got any of the British race of the Large Blue Butterfly down there have you? It became extinct in the UK in 1979 and has been successfully reintroduced since , but using stock from Sweden which is a different race, so we have lost our original one.
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sorry, no. Interestingly enough, the only human-introduced butterfly in New Zealand is the cabbage white (Pieris rapae), I think you call it the small white in England. You can have some of those back if you want.

Monty · 13 Jun 2012

Chlidonias said: ↑

sorry, no. Interestingly enough, the only human-introduced butterfly in New Zealand is the cabbage white (Pieris rapae), I think you call it the small white in England. You can have some of those back if you want.
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Big pest here to. The Caterpillars eat holes in the green Canola pods and all the seed runs out the hole when the pod dries out.

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bumblebees going from NZ to UK

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