Hope for UK bees as queens released in Kent

An extinct bumblebee species has been reintroduced to the UK as a new generation of queen bees was released on the edge of Kent on June 3.

Having spent two weeks collecting the short-haired bumblebees from farmland in southern Sweden, experts have released them at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve in Dungeness, Kent.

Backed by Natural England, the RSPB, Hymettus and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BCT), the project began last year, after four years of working with local farmers to create an ideal wildflower habitat.

Natural environment minister Richard Benyon has hailed the reintroduction as a "fantastic project". He added: "I hope the project succeeds and we can once again have a thriving population of short-haired bumblebees, not only in Kent and East Sussex, but throughout the UK."

Gavin Measures, lead biodiversity advisor at Natural England, said: “It's still early days for the short-haired bumblebee. Reintroductions take time and it may be another year before we see signs of successful breeding. 

"This year's release will bolster the population and gene pool; combined with all the hard work from local farmers across Romney Marsh the species is getting the best start we can give it."

The last confirmed sighting of the short-haired bumblebee in the UK is believed to have been 1988. Recently, the State of Nature Report, which was published by leading conservation groups, found that the insect population is seeing the steepest decline.

It is felt that the reintroduction project offers hope to UK bumblebees as a whole. Project manager, Dr Nikki Gammans says: “Bringing this extinct species back to the UK shows what can be done for wildlife by working together."

Images: Short-haired bumblebee Bombus subterraneus. Credit: Nikki Gammans