Bumblebee Survey

10/07/2006 00:00:00 The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has teamed up with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to help discover more about Britain’s bumblebees. By enlisting the help of the BTO’s army of 16,000 Garden BirdWatchers, researchers at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust hope to track the changing fortunes of these endearing creatures.

Although the sight and sound of bumblebees, droning methodically from flower to flower, is a quintessential part of a summer’s day, many of our bumblebee species appear to be in decline, their distributions contracting rapidly. At the same time, a number of species (including one recent coloniser from France) are expanding and researchers are keen to find out the extent of such changes. Despite the fact that these are familiar insects, there are surprisingly few bumblebee recorders and so our knowledge is lacking in some areas. In order to overcome this problem, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust has enlisted the help of the 16,000 participants in the BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch. These observers spend time each week primarily recording the birds that use their gardens. However, they have more recently started contributing records of other animals, like mammals, amphibians and butterflies; so why not bumblebees! Adding bumblebees to the list of species that they cover has been very well received, not least because their interests often cover all sorts of wildlife, and not just birds. To help Garden BirdWatchers identify the 14 species of bumblebee most likely to occur in gardens, the two organisations have, with the help of illustrator Tony Hopkins, produced an identification chart. As Mike Toms, Garden BirdWatch Organiser, notes ‘We are delighted to be able to help with this work. Gardens are an important habitat for wildlife and, on average, provide far more flowers than agricultural land. This makes them ideal places in which to monitor the changing fortunes of our more widespread bumblebees.’

Professor David Goulson, co-founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, added ‘We are very pleased to be working with the BTO and enlisting the help of the thousands of members of Garden BirdWatch to find out more about the distributions of our bumblebees. Many bumblebees now rely heavily on gardens which provide them with an abundance of flowers through the season, something that is often lacking in the surrounding countryside. By raising awareness of bumblebees in gardens, we also hope to encourage more bee-friendly gardening.’