Come in No 5 . . . bees tagged with number plates to reveal secret lives
2 BEE, or not 2 bee? That is the question the public could be asking when trying to spot one of hundreds of specially numbered bees which are being released into the streets.
Biologists at Queen Mary University of London have attached “licence plates” to 500 bees and will be sending them off from campus rooftops today as part of a project to uncover the secret lives of the insects. Hundreds more will follow in the coming weeks.
The university is awarding prizes of £100 vouchers for the most creative pictures of the insects, whose plastic numbers are attached with superglue.
The London Pollinator Project is trying to locate the bees’ preferred patches in the capital and discover which are their favourite flowers. With this knowledge, the researchers can improve planting to help them thrive.
Prof Lars Chittka, the project’s leader from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, said: “The fact that the bees have individual ‘licence plates’ will allow anyone interested to develop their own science project, and ask questions about the behaviour of bees.
“For example, citizen scientists might be intrigued to see the same bee return to their balcony and might record when during the day, how many times and which flowers they prefer.
“They may be curious about what these regular visits tell us about a bee’s memory for places and why certain bees prefer particular colour flowers.
“Once you view animals as individuals rather than anonymous entities, you develop a connection with them, and a deeper understanding of why it’s important to assist with the conservation of threatened animals.”
Urban bee numbers have slumped in recent years because of habitat loss and lack of suitable flowers.
The project has already encouraged Londoners to plant flowers rich in nectar and pollen, like English lavender, viper’s bugloss, or spiked speedwell.
Although the Queen Mary project is London-based, Friends of the Earth’s Great British Bee Count runs until June 30. So far more than 278,000 bees have been recorded across Britain using a smartphone app.
Prof Dave Goulson, a bee expert at the University of Sussex, said: “Britain’s bees are facing multiple threats, from loss of flower meadows and quiet places to nest, and from the many pesticides used in most modern farming. The good news is that we can all play a part in helping them. Making our gardens and allotments more friendly to bees is easy to do – and can help make a real difference.”
The bee count app is available at greatbritishbeecount.co.uk. Londoners can submit their bee pictures at savelondonbees.co.uk