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’re 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.
“The reason for analyzing the survey results in detail is we really wanted to understand the Canadian public’s overall general knowledge of bees, their perceptions of bees and the threats they face,” says lead researcher Nyssa van Vierssen Trip, a grad student in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.
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Image via Victoria MacPhail - YorkUniversity.