That first year was 1998. He counted ninety-four Franklin’s
bumblebees, which seemed like a normal number to him. The next
year, he found only twenty, but he didn’t think much of it. Bee
populations fluctuate. Then the population dropped off a cliff. “All
of a sudden,” he said, “the bees disappeared out from under me.”
In 2000 he found only nine, and in 2001, just one. The number of
sightings climbed to twenty in 2002 but dropped to just three the
next year. He didn’t see the bee at all in 2004 or 2005.
Then came 2006. “August ninth,” he said. “I’ve got that [date]
indelibly emblazoned in my mind.”
He was combing the meadow on Oregon’s Mount Ashland, the
one past the ski lift, when he saw a bee on a flower. He recognized
it instantly as a Franklin’s. The bee flew off, and Thorp ran after
it down the hill, his heart pounding. He never caught the bee.
Throughout the day and in the years that followed, he returned to
the site repeatedly, but he never saw another sign of the species.
What had caused this bee to go
poof
? And could it be happening
to other bees?
THE RED LIST
Many countries make lists of their at-risk species. For
example, the US Endangered Species List includes imperiled
species that live in the United States. The most comprehensive
list of endangered species worldwide is the IUCN Red List
(formally called the International Union for Conservation
of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species). Launched in
1964, it lists population size, range, habitat, threats, and
other information about more than 98,500 plant and animal
species. In 2019 the Red List named more than 27,000
species as threatened with extinction, including more than a
quarter of North American bumblebees.
10
Where Have All the Bees Gone?
