There is a weird rabbit guy at the Farmer’s Market and by weird rabbit guy I mean, the guy who sells honey that has the Flemish Giant rabbit. I have heard so much about this rabbit and I have never even bought honey from the guy or even gone up to his stand to peruse his goods.  I love honey, especially local honey, but I so d.r.e.a.d. getting stuck in a conversation about his giant rabbit that I am completely deterred from approaching his stand.  Thus, it was to my surprise that last Sunday as I was walking through the market the sound of his voice caused me to slow my steps (yet, despite my curiosity, habit would not allow me to bring myself to a full halt).

It was the content of his words that caught my attention?

What in fact caught my attention was that his voice which carried farther than one might hope was talking not about his rabbit, but about bees.  The sentence that almost-stopped-me-in-my-tracks-but-not-quite was, “In the past two years I have lost $91,000 worth of bees.”

What is causing the disappearance of bees?  Have you heard this question being asked?  Sitting here at 1am, the question has the feel of a Steven King movie.  Unfortunately though, it is true.  The bees are disappearing and so are backyard birds though not necessarily for the same reasons.

The bees first:

The disappearance of bees is officially called colony collapse disorder (CCD).  The peculiarity behind this phenomenon is that bee researchers don’t know what has happened to the bees, although there has been speculation that it is the result of pathogens.  However, the only known is that colonies are abandoning their hives and disappearing, leaving no trace of dead bees anywhere.  In this process the adults are leaving the hives, while the queen bee and a few younger bees in the pupa stage are left behind.  To add another puzzling clue to the mystery is the fact that no pests or other bees are invading the hives affected by CCD.  Bee losses are between 30-60% on the West Coast, while on the East Coast and in Texas there are losses of up to 70%.

The loss of honey bees does not only present problems for our honey supply.  Honey bees are a vital part of our ecosystem, particularly as pollinators.  Without bees to pollinate fruit crops we can have no fruit.  According to the USDA about 1 out of every 3 bites we consume is dependent upon honey bees for pollination.  In addition to the foundational loss of honey and food that we rely on, the structure within which those products are traded will also be negatively impacted.  Unfortunately, the decline of honey bees will cause the global economy to suffer.  While honey bees are not completely gone, the $14 billion worth of seeds and crops pollinated by honey bees annually in the United States alone will certainly be affected.

Some possible causes of the disappearance of honey bees are: pesticides, stress put on the bees by a shorter off-season, stress of having their colonies transported across the country, mites, insecticides, or a yet unidentified pathogens.

The Birds:

Audubon’s unprecedented analysis of forty years of citizen-science bird population data from our own Christmas Bird Count plus the Breeding Bird Survey reveals the alarming decline of many of our most common and beloved birds.

Since 1967 the average population of the common birds in steepest decline has fallen by 68 percent; some individual species nose-dived as much as 80 percent. All 20 birds on the national Common Birds in Decline list lost at least half their populations in just four decades.  National Audubon Society

Some of the reasons that are thought to be causing the decline in a wide range of common backyard birds are:

• urban sprawl: the habitats of these birds (grasslands, forests, and wetlands) are being destroyed as an increasing amount of vegetation is destroyed and replaced with homes, non-indigenous landscaping, strip malls, parking lots, highways, and energy development.  The ecosystem that these birds once thrived in has been transformed, in no time at all, into an inhospitable environment.
• Climate Change: climate change is changing the seasonal calendar.  The internal clocks of the birds have not been notified of this shift.  Thus, if Winter lasts a couple weeks or a month longer than they biologically anticipated then the birds and their chicks are unable to sustain themselves without the nourishment provided by Spring.  Additionally, in some northern climates:

Greater Scaup and other tundra-breeding birds are succumbing to dramatic changes to their breeding habitat as the permafrost melts earlier and more temperate predators move north in a likely response to global warming. Boreal forest birds like the Boreal Chickadee face deforestation from increased insect outbreaks and fire, as well as excessive logging, drilling, and mining.

• Intensification of Agriculture: farming in general has a negative impact on animals, including birds, as land is stripped in order to grow crops and again, as tractors sweep through to harvest.  As the demand for food rises with the growing population more land is needed to grow food.  Although all farming has its animal casualties, industrialized farming is especially harmful.  The single production of crops has a negative impact on the ecosystem as it limits biodiversity.  Additionally, the enormous quantities of pesticides and herbicides that are used in this form of farming are devasting to the life surrounding the farm.  Birds (and other animals) will invariably ingest these toxins which are incredibly harmful to their health and life.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 9:39 am and is filed under Environment, General, educational. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.