How well do you know your bees? 91亚色 researchers have found bee knowledge in Canada lacking with about half of those surveyed thinking honey bees are wild and native to Canada.
They鈥檙e not. They were brought over from Europe and are managed by beekeepers like other farm animals, such as dairy cattle for example, but researchers did find it is the bee species best known to the Canadians.
The researchers analyzed material from an Oraclepoll of 2,000 people across the country on general bee facts and conservation conducted by Friends of the Earth. Some participants thought queen bees and drone bees were a species of bee. They are castes within a species, rather than a species.
A honey bee collecting pollen
鈥淭he reason for analyzing the survey results in detail is we really wanted to understand the Canadian public鈥檚 overall general knowledge of bees, their perceptions of bees and the threats they face,鈥 says lead researcher Nyssa van Vierssen Trip, a grad student in the .
The findings could have a trickle-down effect on conservation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important because to increase legal protections for bees, we need to understand how the public sees them. If there is support for bee conservation among the public, then it would be easier for politicians to take action,鈥 says Assistant Professor , whose lab the research was done in.
About 30 per cent of participants, were able to correctly name the bumble bee as a wild native bee species, but only one respondent named a solitary been, in this case a mason bee. Solitary bees, however, make up the majority of wild native bee species in this country. There are 900 native bee species in Canada. Forty-six species are bumble bees of which one-quarter are at risk of extinction across North America.
native bees and their understanding of these species,鈥 says its CEO, Beatrice Olivastri. 鈥淭he analysis of the poll results by researchers from 91亚色 adds weight to the interpretation of these findings and increases their utility for scientists and government officials. We believe Canadians will support new measures to protect wild, native bees beyond protection for those already at risk.鈥
Can honey bees replace wild bees as crop pollinators? Two-thirds of respondents didn鈥檛 know the answer. About a quarter thought all bees can sting, whereas out of the about 860 native bee species in Canada many do not sting.
鈥淭here is a real need to work with the public and educate them about Canada native wild bee species,鈥 says Colla. 鈥淎lmost one quarter of those surveyed didn鈥檛 know how they could help bee conservation, while close to 20 per cent didn鈥檛 think it was a personal priority.鈥
When it comes to political stripes, researchers found that which federal party participants voted for predicted their concern for bee health and conservation. Respondents who voted for the federal Green Party or the New Democratic Party were more likely to believe climate change, disease, modern intensive agriculture, and habitat loss were threats to bees than Conservative Party voters. Green Party voters were also 3.78 times more likely to express high levels of concern for bee health.
Overall, though, there was a general level of concern for bee health despite political affiliation with pesticides topping the list of the most likely threat with 89 per cent of participants choosing that, followed by 70 per cent thinking loss of floral resources was the biggest threat. Only 66 per cent said climate change.
There were also regional differences. While most Canadians want the provincial and federal governments to take the lead in bee conservation, people in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were more likely to see bee conservation as the responsibility of homeowners and landowners.
But as van Vierssen Trip says, 鈥淲hat we found, is that despite people鈥檚 general knowledge about native wild bees being low, they like bees, they鈥檙e interested in bee conservation and there is heavy engagement in this issue.鈥
The was published this month in the journal Conservation Science and Practice.
Provided by .