30 Jul 2018

Thor Hanson: Praising and protecting bees

From Afternoons, 3:08 pm on 30 July 2018

There probably isn't another creature on the planet more taken for granted than the humble bee.  

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Photo: Supplied

For every third bite of food you eat, you can thank a bee.

Their pollination abilities have brought about the splendid range of colour and scents of flowers, and they are likely to have provided a main source of food that has allowed humans to evolve. 

But they are also at risk.

Conservation biologist Thor Hanson lists the many reasons why we should admire bees and do more to protect them in his new book Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees.

Bee-volution

Native NZ Bee

Scientists have identified 28 species of the 41 known species found in New Zealand are native bees. Photo: CC BY-NC_ND 3.0 Phil Bendle

There are 20,000 species of bees - some wild, some domesticated - including 28 species of native bee in New Zealand.

Thor Hanson

Dr Thor Hanson Photo: Supplied.

Dr Hanson says bees have a long history, and evolved right alongside flowering plants. 

“Bees came on the scene approximately 120 million years ago, right in the middle of the cretaceous period which was famously dominated by the dinosaurs.”

He says they evolved from wasps by becoming vegetarians. 

“When I hear about the vegetarian campaigning going on around the world, I say ‘well why aren’t they talking about bees, they’re the most successful vegetarians of all. 

“Providing for themselves and for their offspring solely through the products of flowers: pollen and nectar. 

“They did this right at the moment in time right when the flowering plants were first beginning to spread and diversify across the world.”

He says taking on pollen and nectar gave them an untapped resource as well as other advantages. 

“If you are a hunter like a wasp, and you’re out there fighting with a spider to subdue it and take it back to your nest that is a really dangerous operation.”

Stings and things: Bee traits

Dr Hanson says bee-sting strength seems to be tied to how much individual species have to protect, for instance honey bees which live in huge colonies and store honey and larvae throughout winter have much to protect. 

“And so the honey bee sting is particularly strong for a bee. 

“Most bees are solitary creatures, just a lone female provisioning a few cells in her nest somewhere in the ground or in a hollow twig or a hole in a tree trunk. 

“She would rather flee and save herself than bother to defend that nest.”

He says bumblebees differ from honey bees in that they only nest for a season, so although they produce honey it’s only a small amount. 

Honey bees, which live in huge colonies, have one of the stronger stings of bee species. Photo: 123RF

“Bumblebees … in the spring and summer will all perish by the end of the season. They have these brief nests that only need to store up honey for a few rainy days because they’re not trying to live all winter long. 

“Even though it’s delicious, it’s not provided in the massive quantities that you find in the honey bees. 

He says bees have evolved hairy legs for transporting pollen, and the stalks on their heads are actually used for smell and taste.

“It’s kind of a happy accident of nature that we find these scents attractive too, but the aromas of flowers can drift on wind for hundreds of metres, and bees with their incredible sensory organs … can pick up minute traces of floral odours and floral scents."

A close up of a bee's head and antennae

Bees' antennae have scent detection and tastebuds.   Photo: Creative Commons

He says they also - like some other insects - have extra eyes on top of their heads for direction and light sensitivity. 

“If you look at the head of the bee, you’ll see of course two large faceted eyes, and you’ll aslo see three little sort of bonus eyes - little glassy looking marble shapes right on the top of the head.”

“So, going up is a very natural behaviour for bees.

“They often will rise up towards light to orient itself and in doing so will get trapped against the glass.”

He says the only real way to stop them getting stuck on upward-facing windows is to dim the window somehow. 

Sweet, man: Humanity’s honey history

Honey

Honey has likely been a main source of calories for humans throughout history.  Photo: Honey

Evidence is also emerging that perhaps people have been living off honey in far greater quantities, for far longer than was previously suspected. 

“This research comes to us from Tanzania,” Dr Hanson says, “from a group of hunter-gatherers called the Hadza people who live in very close to the same landscape where our species is thought to have evolved.

“They are honey hunters, as many hunter-gatherers are around the world. Wherever honey is available people will go after it.” 

He says it was only recently that anthropologists bothered to ask how much honey the Hadza were eating. 

“It’s not just an occasional sweet treat, this is a staple of the diet, making up as much as 15 percent of the calorie intake.

“Much more than that at certain times of year, and more still for the men who do a lot of the honey hunting." 

It seems likely that honey has been a staple like this for much of humans’ evolutionary history. 

“Every time there’s been a leap in the size of our brains, that’s been attributed to change in our behaviour or diet that’s given us a boost of calories,” Dr Hanson says.

He says there’s a growing consensus that one such boost came from the availability of honey, along with learning to cook, farm and hunt. 

“We know that chimpanzees eat honey, so why not our ancestors like Australopithecus, or homo erectus, or homo habilis - they would have been searching for honey too.” 

Kids raiding the hive

62644677 - young thai boy interesting at honey comb from the small bottle in the garden.

Photo: tinna2727/123RF

Having gone on bee-seeking trips with his son, Dr Hanson also says children seem to have an affinity for bees which he also attributes to evolution.

“You take them out to look for bees and they’re rapt and they’re interested and they’re fearless, and they’ll reach out and catch bees in ways that many of us adults would need training to do. 

“If you think about kids you know that they have a sweet tooth and they love sweet things.

“For most of human history, bees provided the sweetest thing in the human diet, whether it was honey from the honey bees that we are so familiar with or some of the pollen and nectar treats that other bee species leave for their offspring in the nest. 

“Those things could be raided and enjoyed by children long before the advent of refined sugar. 

He says there’s evidence of these childhood raids even in fairly recent history. 

“If you look in histories and even in common books back to the 19th century and early 20th century, there are all these stories about children raiding bumblebee hives, or raiding the nests of little mason bees and other things to get a sweet treat.

“I think that interest has only been lost for one, or two, or three generations.” 

Bee a friend, plant a flower: Solving bee deaths

Thousands dead honey bees poisoned by pesticides

Thousands dead honey bees poisoned by pesticides Photo: 123rf

Dr Hanson says scientists have never been able to nail down one single cause of what’s known as colony collapse disorder.  

“Beekeepers would go out to a hive that had apparently been healthy and it had been emptied of worker bees with only a few sickly hive bees remaining and an unattended, dying queen. 

He says the phenomenon appears to have several things behind it, the main ones being the four ‘p’s: pathogens, parasites, pesticides and poor nutrition. 

“There was never a smoking gun identified, no single factor that was causing those declines for the honey bee, but rather scientists became more aware of the multiple stressors that were affecting the honey bees.” 

However, the understanding of these stressors means there’s something - or rather, several things - people can do to help. 

“By  providing more flowers in the landscape, by providing more nesting habitat, and by limiting the transport of bees and the pathogens that travel with them. 

He says the good news is that anyone can help. 

“We can do it in a window box, or in your backyard, or in your local park or on the verge of the roadside - by providing flowers. 

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Bees need flowers to live, and places without them - even though they may be parks or golf courses full of plants - make it difficult for them to survive. Photo: Public Domain

“A golf course or even a lawn can be an absolute desert for bees because it lacks floral resources.” 

And it works - he says some California almond orchards have managed to triple native bees in the area - both in number and variety - in a single season just by planting native hedges.