After being last seen in the south of England in 1998, and declared extinct in 2000, the short-haired bumblebee (
Bombus subterraneus) is going to be reintroduced, from stocks reimported from New Zealand. The project hopes to see the first bees released into the wild in 2010 or 2011, conservation group Natural England says:
The short-haired bumblebee was originally exported to New Zealand in the late 1800s to pollinate red clover (also imported), which was used as cattle feed. Now the plan is to recreate enough wildflower habitat to support the bees in their native land—England has seen a loss of 98% of its wildflower meadows in the past 70 years.
Initially about 100 bees will be collected in New Zealand and then flown back in cool boxes. A captive breeding program will be developed to support the population before reintroduction.
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/bumblebees-extinct-in-uk-reintroduced-from-new-zealand.php
