Bumblebee project seeking to help rare species — SkimNews
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- The Bumblebee Conservation Trust and the University of Cambridge are launching a £907,000, three-year project to recover the Moss carder bumblebee, described as one of the UK's most threatened species.
- The project targets specific landscapes: Cornwall's coastal grasslands, dunes and heathland, Kent's grazing marshes and sea walls, and the upland fringe of the North Pennines.
- The trust will partner with landowners to trial small-scale habitat interventions while studying the species' behaviour and ecological needs.
- Natural England's Species Recovery Programme has contributed more than £530,000 toward the initiative's funding.
- Moss carder bumblebees exist in small, fragmented populations and are recognisable by velvety ginger-yellow hairs with no black hairs; they typically forage closer to their nests than other species, making habitat loss especially damaging.
- Amy Plowman, the trust's head of conservation and science, called the project "hugely exciting and ambitious" and a chance to "turn the tide" for the species.
- Tylan Berry, Natural England's species and nature recovery networks senior officer, described the Moss carder as "one of England's most threatened pollinators."
Why it matters: Three distinct English landscapes — Cornwall, Kent and the North Pennines — will receive targeted, trial-and-measure habitat work over three years for a pollinator whose close-to-nest foraging makes it uniquely vulnerable to fragmentation. With more than £530,000 from Natural England's Species Recovery Programme, the initiative gives researchers a rare chance to test which small-scale interventions actually move the needle for the Moss carder.
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