PBS Terra explains 'Why Bumble Bees Are the Fuzzy Heroes We Need' for World Bee Day

Happy World Bee Day! Since honeybees have their own day, I'm looking at the other well-known group of social bees today, bumblebees. Because of that, I'm sharing PBS Terra explaining Why Bumble Bees Are the Fuzzy Heroes We Need.

If the insect world has a fuzzy, charismatic cutie, it’s surely the humble bumble bee. While insect populations are declining around the globe, bumble bees face unique threats that make them particularly vulnerable. Surveying projects across the U.S. are combining the forces of researchers and community scientists to help protect these critical native pollinators.

Our host and museum curator, Jessica Ware, Ph.D. dives inside the hive to explore why honey bees aren’t the coolest pollinator in town. And Hillary Sardiñas, the pollinator coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shows us how to net a queen bumble bee and explains how you can get involved in the mission to save imperiled insects! The series is produced for PBS by the American Museum of Natural History.

The opening repeats the point of Vox explains 'What we get wrong about saving the bees' for World Honey Bee Day; we're worrying about the wrong bees. People in North America may not have enough honeybees to do all the things we need them to do, but they're not going to go extinct. Honeybees are not bananas. On the other hand, some species of bumblebees are threatened or endangered, and we need those, too.

That's a wrap for World Bee Day, but I'm not done with biodiversity this week, as Wednesday is International Day for Biological Diversity. Stay tuned for that after tomorrow's marching music for the Kentucky and Oregon primaries.