Bee: More Than Honey

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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz and I'm Epony Money. Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts. This podcast is a production of I Heart Radio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. Now, before we get started, I want to touch on something exciting opening at the San Diego Zoo this year. There's a new destination at the San Diego Zoo. The Denny Sandford Wildlife Explorers base Camp, was created with one goal in mind to encourage wildlife explorers to learn about nature, play alongside animals, encounter new species, and ultimately develop an empathy for wildlife. The rainforest area of base camp features a real life bee hive with a larger than life honeycomb, where young guests will be invited to become the bee. Today, we'll find out some of what that entails. We're talking all about bees and what makes them unique and the different types and why they're such an essential part of the ecosystem. So, Rick, what makes bees such an important part of the environment. Well, I mean, I'm really glad you brought this up right away, because I think a lot of people get stuck on the fact that bees have the potential distingtum creating sort of this automatic fear response. And I'm sure we will get to that part of the bee in a moment, But first we need to discuss, as you asked, just how important bees are not only to the environment in general, but our food sources as well, and therefore the ability to feed ourselves and our families. So in general, when it comes to the importance of having pollinators in our environment, we need to understand that pollination of flowers by bees, butterflies and many other species allows plants to reproduce. Therefore, to have an ecosystem that involves plants, and that's most of them, we absolutely need pollinators. And when you when you say pollination, I immediately jumped to honey. Bees are synonymous with honey, which maybe one of the things that makes them so popular, but come to find out, it's just one of their many contributions. Rick, can you explain, like what other things we can be thankful for like thanks to bees? Well, of course, yes, the delicious honey. Emty it's it's even in their name honey bee, right, But we also want to look at their contribution for other yummy things like almonds, berries, apples, squashed broccoli, corn, and so much more. Pretty much everything you might find in the proto section, we need to think to bees. Now, of course, bees don't make these foods, but when it comes to our agriculture and growing the foods that end up in our meals, the history of their contribution is unmat You see, the honeybees were all accustomed to seeing here in the United States aren't actually native to the Americas. That being said, most all of the crops that we are using for agriculture are also not native to the Americas. So when it comes to the European honeybee we have in the US today, the earliest records show that they were introduced to the Colony of Virginia from England in the sixteen twenties. That's like an amazing blend of history and science that is so interesting. Well, here's a little more history for you. In fact, there is a fossil that proves that an extinct honeybee lived in North America about fourteen million years ago. But back to our honeybee of today. So why are honeybees so important to agriculture? Right now? We'll get this. We know that more than ninety different types of crops rely on the honeybee pollination. Of the about four thousand b species that live here in the United States, our friend, the European honeybee is the most common pollinator of all of these crops. In fact, it is estimated that one third of the food we eat comes from crops pollinated by honey bees, making it a very important bee species to all of us. Wow, ninety different crops. So, Rick, you mentioned honey bees specifically, but what other types of bees are there? Can we talk a bit about the different types of bees. I'm not sure if people realize just you know, how many bees there are are the bees that she mentioned that pollinate the flowers the same bees that make the honey or are we talking about different species. Well, yes and no. Ebony honey bees are the species we rely on for honey and they do pollinate flowers too. But here's another fun fact for everyone across the world. There are about twenty thousand different species of bees, and here in the US we have about four thousand species of bees. So there's a good chance that you will see a species of bee busy pollinating, but it may not be a honeybee. That's kid so by simply looking at a b what's the easiest way to tell the difference, say, from honeybee and like a bumblebee. Oh, that's that's a good question. And there's a lot of other bee species too. They sometimes don't even look like bees, but these two have a lot in common, but some differences at first glance have any. The easiest way to distinguish the honeybee and the bumblebee is the size. Bubble Bees are larger and sort of more robust in size, I guess it's a good way to put it. In fact, they are kind of so round it's very hard to see where their heads stops and their thorax starts, whereas with the honeybee, it is a much easier sort of distinction to see between the head and thorax. And also, bumble bees are fuzzier, usually with more hair on their body, which actually helps them gather pollen as they dance around on the flowers and when they are flying. The honeybee tends to have the traditional buzz and a more direct flight pattern, but the bumblebee has a lower and louder tone in their buzz, almost a hum. In fact, the other common name is humblebee. These humble or bumble bees also tend to have a less direct, almost awkward flight pattern. And interestingly enough, the term bumble means to hum, buzz or drone like an insect. So I guess you can see how the bumblebee got its name. Wow, So whoever coined that name was someone pretty observant. So honeybees not only look different, and now we know they also fly different than some other bees, but they're social structure maybe the most unique standout characteristic. How do honeybee colonies run? Oh? I do love talking about the social structure of honeybee colonies. And if you've been listening to our podcast for a while now, you probably remember the episode about the Naked mole rats where we discuss their social structure and how it is just like the bees. It's called you social spelled eu s O C I A L and it basically means they live in and advanced social structure with nest sharing responsibilities, division of labor, social roles and so on. And with the honeybee there is a queen, hundreds of drones and upwards of fifty thousand worker bees, so most of us are familiar with the concept of the honeybee queen. I think that's part of what makes honeybees so fascinating. But are there any like lesser known aspects of the honeybees, like social structure, that I think are interesting that maybe people just don't know about. Honestly, I mean, I think when it comes to the honeybees, every aspect is interesting. I mean, for example, most people know the queen is what or who keeps the colony together? But do you know how? That's the fun part here? Get this. The queen secretes a chemical known as queen substance. It's an actual term for describing this. This can either attract males to follow an unfertilized queen to a new hive, so sometimes a new queen is born as she creates your own was a split off group, or modify the behavior of workers in the hive of the fertilized queen. Her queen's substance prevents the workers from rearing new queens while she's alive, so all the bees born into the colony will be workers. And drones. However, if the queen should die or leave the hive, the lack of her queen's substance will trigger the workers to immediately build special brooding cells with a substance known as royal jelly. This royal jelly is necessary and very specific to the development of the larvae to become a queen bee. And as fascinating as all of that is, it's just one example of the many interesting things we know about bees. Yeah, I'm going to say that not too many people know about the queen's substance. It's something I think people would definitely be talking about if more of us knew about it. That's very interesting. So, Rick, can we debunk some myths about bees? Starting with the idea that all bees live in colonies like you just described, what's more accurate? Okay, haven't you ready for this? Yes, here are some pretty amazing facts about different bee living situations. So going big picture here. In all of the twenty thousand different bee species around the world, about ten percent are considered social. The rest are all solitary. Now, let's get a little closer to home here in North America, only the forty six species of native bumble bees and the introduced honeybee live in colonies. So with there being about four thousand species of bees in North America, that puts our high building buddies like the honeybee in the minority, meaning most bees are solitary. Rick. That is so surprising. When I think about bees, I think about the colony. But with the majority of these being more solitary, one bee would be less intimidating, I guess, than a swarm. And when I say intimidating, I'm talking about the idea that bees sting. Are all bees capable of stinging? Ah? Yes, the one thing that makes them the insect we fear so very much, the dreaded sting. And to answer your question right away, no, not all bees can sting. The stinger is a modified egg laying device, which kind of sounds weird, but it's true, and so only females have stingers. It is worth noting many species of bees cannot sting, some can bite, but not sting. And what's really important to know bees only tend to sting when they feel threatened or when defending their nest. So please remember if you happen across a bee in the garden, just be calm, and they will probably mind their own bees nous. I'll try to remember that. So Rick, the status of bee populations comes up a lot in national conversations about the environment. Why is the decline such a concern? Well, yes, have any the idea of us losing bees due to population decline is very concerning. Like we have mentioned, these play a very important role in our food production and they play an equally important role in every environment they are naturally found in. So without their amazing pollination power, we would lose so much in our natural world. Plant reproduction would drop dramatically, if not stop altogether for some species, food for wildlife would start to disappear, causing the collapse of countless ecosystems. So yes, they are very important, and Rick, the International Union for Conservation of Nature names species as threatened. What's behind the decline of the populations? Well, unfortunately, e many alike with many challenges facing wildlife today. It's not one simple, clean cut answer, but instead sort of a combination of several things coming together. Those who have been studying the population decline across the world all agree that it's a combination of pollution, pesticides, ecosystem and habitat changes, paras and climate change. Now, thankfully we are aware of all these challenges that the b population is facing, so we can start making some serious changes to hopefully reverse this trend. And speaking of making changes, I would imagine that making those changes would also help other species as well. Many people may have been surprised to have learned when you mentioned earlier that honey bees are not native to North America. What is a native bee and what's the significance of a native b Yeah, you know here in North America ebony. A native bee species is any bee species that we can trace the origin back to North America, and currently there are about four thousand of those. So like our friend the bumblebee, for example, there isn't just one species of bumblebee. Would you believe? There are about forty six different species of bumble bee native to North America. And then when we talk about the diversity of size and color of many of these different bees, well, some can be as small as about one six of an inch in length, and while others, like the carpenter b can be almost one inch in length. That's a pretty big difference in size. But no matter what kind of be we're talking about. It is important to remember that they are pollinators, most of which can't sting, and are pivotal to our survival as well. Coming up, we're talking to a b expert and ecologist that's coming up right after this. Now it's time for the San Diego Zoom Minute, an opportunity for you to learn what's new at the zoo. A thirty five year old female sumach and orangutan at the San Diego Zoo gave birth. The healthy mail was born on January four and has been named Kaja. Sumach And orangutans are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature are u c N, the Red list of threatened species. This decline in their population is due to illegal wildlife trafficking and habitat loss. Did you know When they're born, baby orangutans are about three to four pounds. They will stay with their mothers for eight to nine years. During that time, their moms will teach them complex foraging skills, including what to eat and where to find it. And this is so important since young orangutans need to learn to find and identify more than two hundred different food items in the forest, including fruit flowers, leaves, bark, and honey m wild beat populations have been on the decline for fifty years. A few species have gone on extinct. Scientists say the cause of the decline is complicated. Joining the conversation now is be expert Professor King Low James Hung, a pollination ecologist and assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma. Welcome, thanks for having me. Excited to be here, so, Professor Hung, what makes bees so important to the environment. Well, bees are important because they are pollinators, and this means that they perform a key step in the life cycle of many plants species. Now, of course, there are other insects that are pollinators, like flies and moths and butterflies and beetles and wasps, and also larger animals such as birds and bats. But bees tend to be the largest group of pollinators in most ecosystems around the world, both in terms of how many species there are and in terms of their sheer number, and so we stand to lose many of our most fascinating plant species if bees were to disappear. And when you say if bees were to disappear, how serious is the decline of bees? In the wild. Well, I think that depends on how you define the wild. I would like to say that we're not in any imminent threat of all bees disappearing, Because there are about twenty thousand be species throughout the world. Some species are more threatened than others, and in pristine habitat that's far away from human influence. I suspect that of all the be species that are out there, probably most are not doing too badly, just like most other organisms that are surviving in pristine habitat. But the fact is that we're losing that kind of nice, protected habitat at a very alarming pace. And are human activities, whether it's setting up cities or growing miles and miles of corn and soy, or logging the rainforests, these things are certainly having an impact on what be species can continue to thrive in places that they once called home. And of course there are other species that seemed to be doing very poorly, even in habitat that look pretty pristine to our human eyes. So those are species that we need to really pay particular attention to. And you've spoken about the decline of habitat, but how about the overall impact of global warming. Is there any indication that bees have been impacted by global warming? Yeah, it's not just the warming aspect that's impacting the beasts, but also other aspects of this global climate change that we're all experiencing right now that's also pretty much impacting all ecosystems on Earth. There are aspects of this change like shifts in rainfall patterns and increases in fluctuation of weather conditions from one year to another. How we know these changes are happening is we can compare what we're seeing right now. The be species that are present now are not present in the same proportions as those that were present before. And also some have become decoupled from the plants shees that they used to associate with. So I would definitely say that global warming and other aspects of climate change are impacting our bees. And when you say decoupled, how does that happen? How does the be get separated from the plant that it had previously been associated with. Mm hm, that's a great question. In some cases, it's because the bee and the plant no longer occurs in the same habitat. And now these are cases where the b and the plant are not so tightly mutually dependent. Right, so be species that can feed on other plant species, and also plant species that can be pollinated by other things than the bee that it used to associate with. There can also be instances where under a previous climate condition, the bee will be flying at the same time that the flower is blooming, whereas now the flower blooms before the bee is flying him. By the time the bee starts flying, the plant has finished its bloom. So those kinds of mismatches can also happen and are bees in particular vulnerable to the effects of global warming. These are particularly vulnerable among all insects because they so heavily depend on flowers. Flowers are their soul source of food, they only consume nectar for their energy needs, and they provisioned their offspring with pollen, and so when climate changes, bees and the plants that they depend on could shift their timings in different ways, and if they miss each other, then both of them could be in trouble due to these timing mismatches. Right for the bee, it could be as short as a two week period that it needs to pinpoint in order to have the flower that it needs. And also, since most b species in our region of the world, the temperate region. They spend their winters in a state of suspended animation. Warmer winters could cost them to burn through their energy stores these fat reserves a lot more quickly, and this could increase their risk of not making it through the winter. Wow. So if all be these consume nectar, why is it that all bees don't also make honey? Oh, that's a great question, and that's because most bee species are solitary. They do not need to store up large stores of honey for a large number of colony mates, and they don't need to overwinter as these adult bees that need to constantly consume food to survive. So instead, the life cycle of most bees is that each single solitary female will construct her own nest. She will still collect some quantities of nectar, but then she would mix that nectar with pollen that she also collects, and they will form these little pollen provision balls or slurries and lay an egg on that. And so when the baby bee hatches, usually the female bee is long gone by. Then the baby bee will eat the pollen and nectar mixture that the mother bee has provided for it, and that's enough to help it to develop into an adult bee. So only social bees like honey bees and bumble bees really need to be storing up provision stores in the form of honey in order to help their colony to persist through times when there's no resource available. And some researchers have warned of a potential pollination crisis. What does that mean? What's the pollination crisis? I think if you ask different people, you're probably going to get different answers. For farmers who are dependent on managed honey bees to pollinate their crops, the pollination crisis may refer to the fact that a lot of beekeepers have been struggling to keep their honeybee colonies alive over winters. That's due to a large number of challenges that the beekeeping industry has had to deal with recently. For conservation biologists like myself, this phrase might refer to the fact that when we lose wild pollinators in natural areas, while plants might not be getting the pollination services that they need. And these are both important issues that we need to address as soon as we can. So scientists have linked the decline of the populations to pollution and pesticides and disease what types of pollution are harmful, particularly to bees. The most abundant evidence we have for pollution is actually pesticide runoff, where chemicals that were intended to control pests in agricultural fields end up steeping into natural environments nearby, or even semi natural environments like weedy ditches next to the farms, and these chemicals end up in the plants, and they get consumed by bees and other wild organisms, and of course these can do a number on their health. More recently, though, research is also starting to show that air pollution can actually be harmful for bees too, especially in parts of the world where air pollution is very intense. Now Here in North America we're fortunate that we have relatively clean air, but even here, pollutants in the air can mess with b eas ability to detect and follow the smells of the flowers that they need to feed on, and so these bees um will be wasting a lot more energy and time bumbling around looking for their food. This probably won't kill them outright, but this could add one more straw to the camel's back, so to speak. So in recent years there has been a push to go green and just be more conscious of the chemicals that are being used. Is there any indication that there's been any improvements with the concern of pesticides than the problem with pesticides. Well, I think there's certainly a stronger emphasis and awareness on how important it is to protect our pollinators, which I think is great. I'm seeing both professional farmers and other members of our community who are working towards reducing their pesticide use. But we can all still use more guidance. So, for example, there's actually very little actual research out there to demonstrate how much pesticide you actually need to spray, and there so so very little information on which of the beetle pesticides that you could choose from in order to minimize polluting the flowers and harming the bees. Of course, you know, the farmers are very smart and very resourceful, and they're figuring things out by experimenting with their own fields and keeping beautiful log books full of data. But these farmers are also hitting a moving target since pest species are evolving resistance to the pesticides and climate conditions are changing from year to year. Um, So what I'm trying to say is it's great to be going green, It's great to have this greater awareness that we should be reducing our pesticide use, but we also need to be making advancements on the pest control side to make sure that the needs of all of our stakeholders are being properly met. So would you say that's the greatest need as far as just like more information? Um, do you think that tackling the pesticide issue is the biggest priority for BE conservation Because there's also the concern of of disease, What would you say is the primary threat to BE conservation. Different experts who work in different systems will probably give you different answers, and I think they would all be correct because in different kinds of scenarios, there are different kinds of challenges that need to be tackled. As someone who studies natural ecosystems, my answer for kind of the highest priority one will probably be to address habitat loss and habitat degradation, conserving as much habitat as we can, because if we can retain large expanses of these relatively untouched priestine natural habitat, then we can give bees as well as the native plants that they depend on, the best fighting chance and overcoming these other stressors like pollution and disease and climate change. I think you can think of good natural habitat as a bastion from which bees and other wildlife can mount a defense and stage or comeback against all these different challenges that they're facing right now. And can we talk about eative bees, which refers to bees native to say, North America. Of the thousands of species of bees, why is there particular interest in native bees? Well, first and foremost, I think there is just inherent value in preserving native bio diversity, just like there's inherent value in protecting indigenous cultures and great masterpieces of art and ancient documents. Right, I think a few people would disagree that these things are worth protecting. And native bees are all of these things. They have a way of life that has enabled them to coexist with their environment and actually add value to it for eons. And they are distinctly gorgeous animals, and their genetic libraries hold vast amounts of information that are irreplaceable if a species were to go extinct, and they are ancient documents in and of themselves. And also from a more utilitarian point of view, native beast are some of the best pollinators of our native plans, and also they pollinate many of our food crops too. Sure, you know, we have honey bees that are managed by humans and they can do a lot of the heavy lifting, especially in our crop fields, but they certainly can't do the whole pollination job on their own, especially for the vast majority of wild plants that we have in nature. So I heard you you getting a bit excited when referring to the importance of native bees. How does one become a B expert with years and years of training in my case? But one really cool thing that I'm seeing right now is that there's this huge wave of interest among lay community members in pollinator diversity and pollinator conservation, and these people who some don't even have a formal biology training are becoming real B experts. So I think having passion for this cause and then having a desire to learn is the most important thing. Yes, we've actually as a family contributed to some of those databases as well, and it is it's quite fun. So is there anything else people can do to help support pollinators? For starters, you can plant some native plants in your garden or in a community planting area. Native plants are some of the best ways we can keep native bees around. If you have any control over the use of pesticides in your locality or if you're grower, you can minimize your use of pesticides, and believe it or not, you can also help pollinators by changing your diet. One of the bigger contributors to habitat loss is clearing of rainforests and other natural habitats for raising cattle because US twenty one century humans like our steaks and burgers so much, and this process of clearing forests and natural habitat is also intensifying climate change. So if we try to collectively shift to eating more plant based proteins, we may be able to slow down that process. Good advice. Thank you so much, Professor Hung appollination ecologists from the University of Oklahoma. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks for listening. We hope you learned a lot about bees and be sure to subscribe and tune into next week's episode when we share with you the story of an owl species that seemed to be well the exception to the rules due to being more active during the day and not nesting in trees. I'm Ebony Money and I'm Rick Schwartz. Thanks for listening. If you would like to find out more about San Diego Zoo while Leff Alliance, please visit sdz w a dot org Amazing Wildlife. As a production of I Heart Radio, our producer is Nikkia Swinton and our executive producer is Marcia de Peana. Our sound engineer and editor is Amda Gnatra. For more shows from My Heart Radio, check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Gott