Bumble Bees (genus Bombus) are a diverse genus of Bees with 25 species in Ontario according to range maps, but more like 14-16 species you are more likely to encounter. It can be a confusing process not only trying to decipher the genus of a Bee, but especially down to the species. Now how about trying to i.d. a increasingly hard to find species? Its hard. Its harder still to try and help these bees get back into the mating game, supporting their regeneration and helping them help reinhabit the places where their populations were once more common.
Tiffani Harrison is the conservation outreach and field biologist with Wildlife Preservation Canada. She and her teams have been surveying various sites across Canada in search of Bumble Bees, to gather Queens for the breeding Bumble Bee Breeding lab in efforts to learn more about how to support declining species.
I myself am on a big kick to learn more about Bumble Bees and this interview with Tiffani Harrison was incredibly helpful in that regard. If you are interested in learning more about Bumble Bee ecologies, especially in the context of increasingly rare species, take a listen to the show.
For more information:
Wildlife Preservation Canada