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This story was originally appeared Atlas Obscura and Climate Table collaboration.
“People don’t come to Denali and other parks in Alaska to look at bumblebees, but they should,” says Jessica Rykken, an entomologist at Denali National Park and Preserve. The “Last Frontier” statue is well known for its bear wildlife. to moose, but on a smaller scale, if they don’t have the usual treasures (or bees, depending on what you ask for) diversity is common and strengthens entire ecosystems.
“Bring the next generation of plants to give habitat to caribou or algae or any large herbivore, and then their dependent carnivores are linked to pollinators,” says wildlife biologist Casey Burns, of the Alaska Office of Land Management. . “I think they’re arguably the most important wildlife group for ecological function.”
Bumblebees are not the only local pollinators in the northern U.S. state. There are many other native bee species, and local bees are also important (as are many butterfly species). But the number of bumblees in Alaska stands out – “We generally have a relatively low diversity of bees, but we have a very high proportion of bumblebees,” says Rykken and the reasons for his success. And while 48 species of lowland birds are in decline, members of the genus Alaska Bombus they seem to be rich. Now, researchers and conservationists are making an unprecedented effort to find out how many bee rumors are circulating about their horrific and largely uninvestigated status. The first Alaska bee atlas project is underway, and bumblebees will star.
Nearly half of the nearly 50 animal species documented in the United States can be found in Alaska, including four species found nowhere else in the country. Full-bodied and covered in thick, insulating hair (in a Zoom call, Rykken has thick, hairy fat and needles, some the size of a big toe), bumblebees have other skills to survive in cold weather, including well-twerking. Generally bees can vibrate their wing muscles quickly, without flying, to create warmth, bumblees are especially good.
“They use these flight muscles to rise 30 degrees in five minutes,” Rykken says. This rapid rise in heat allows other insects to fly on cold or snowy days on the ground. And, while other social bees, including bees, keep their queen, cub, and each other warm, bumblebees can survive alone. A Bombus the queen can transfer the heat generated by the flight muscles to her abdomen to keep her eggs warm.
“They’re amazingly thermoregulated,” says entomologist Derek Sikes, who is in charge of the University of Alaska Museum’s collection of insects. Sikes said the bumbles are “really warm-blooded: they produce heat, it’s not constant, like mammals. But it’s internal, not just for sunbathing.”
The natural cycle of life Bombus the species adapts to Alaska with long winters and short summers. In August, when the first frosts usually arrive, the queen makes a long hibernation underground, alone. It hatches in the spring, finds a nest, and creates worker female bees and eventually pairs them with new queens and males. As August approaches again, successfully linked, the new queens will find a place to lie down in the winter. “Everyone else (the old queen, the workers, the men) dies,” Rykken says. While many other social bee species thrive in groups in the winter, individual livestock strategies require fewer resources and are more effective for their environment.
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