Wild honeybees in Europe declared endangered for the first time

Wild honeybees in Europe declared endangered for the first time (Image: Canva)

According to latest update from IUCN Red List, wild honeybees (Apis mellifera) have been formally determined at risk. Wild honeybees were considered as data deficient until recently, which means that scientists did not obtain sufficient data to determine their survival.

Why Wild Bees Are at Risk?

The wild honeybees build their nest inside hollow trees or rock crevices as opposed to managed colonies that are tended to by the beekeepers. Researchers have pointed to an impending collapse of these populations because of various factors. Some factors such as destruction of their habitat, diseases, parasites and genetic hybridisation have made these bees at risk.

The bees have escaped as well as the disappeared from their natural nesting sites. The recent farming technology and urbanisation have even curtailed the ecologies that these bees need to stay.

Threat to Genetic Diversity

The extinction of colonies of wild organisms is a threat to biodiversity as well as genetic strength. Wild honeybees are also adapted in various ways, which make them resistant to environmental stresses and disease, and which are frequently lacking in managed populations.

Scientists have warned that the depletion of such wild gene pools may result in the vulnerability of both wild and farmed bees to other future catastrophes.

Restoring Newland Arthropods

However, conservationists are demanding urgent measures on how to save the remaining wild populations by restoring their habitats and containing diseases and monitoring their heredity.

Conservation of wild honeybees is very essential in preserving healthy ecosystems and also in the security of food and farm sustainability in Europe.