Rusty Patched Bumblebee - Meet The Endangered
Rusty Patched Bumblebee (Bombus affinis)
If you live in the eastern half of North America, chances are you’ve seen a Rusty Patched Bumblebee. Up until very recently, it was one of the most common types of bees across 28 US states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
You may never see one again. Since the late 1990s populations have crashed by 87%, and it is now extinct across the vast majority of its former range. The leading explanation is that pathogens first incubated in honey bee colonies spread to the Rusty Patched populations, which had no natural immunity. Other factors like insecticide use, climate change, and habitat loss to monoculture crops may have played smaller roles.
In 2017, the Rusty Patched Bumblebee became the first bee in the continental US to be listed as an endangered species. This allowed for increased protection of its few remaining redoubts. Conservationists also help by planting its favorite plant species in home bee gardens.
IUCN: Critically Endangered (CR)
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