{"id":2026,"date":"2020-11-02T15:54:23","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T20:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/gradstudies\/?p=2026"},"modified":"2022-06-27T10:39:41","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T14:39:41","slug":"york-researchers-find-canadians-lack-knowledge-about-bees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/gradstudies\/2020\/11\/02\/york-researchers-find-canadians-lack-knowledge-about-bees\/","title":{"rendered":"York researchers find Canadians lack knowledge about bees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How well do you know your bees? York University researchers have found bee knowledge in Canada lacking with about half of those surveyed thinking honey bees are wild and native to Canada.

They\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A honey bee collecting pollen<\/sub><\/p><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe reason for analyzing the survey results in detail is we really wanted to understand the Canadian public\u2019s overall general knowledge of bees, their perceptions of bees and the threats they face,\u201d says lead researcher Nyssa van Vierssen Trip, a grad student in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change<\/a>.

The findings could have a trickle-down effect on conservation.

\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d says Assistant Professor Sheila Colla<\/a>, whose lab the research was done in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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,\u201d says its CEO, Beatrice Olivastri. \u201cThe analysis of the poll results by researchers from York University 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.\u201d

Can honey bees replace wild bees as crop pollinators? Two-thirds of respondents didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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