Ecologists at the Key Royal Botanical Gardens in London have invested in a new way of observing our environment and why bees are disappearing. Tumbling Dice Ltd. is a software company that has developed a small back pack tracker that is put onto the bees.
The bees are chilled for ten minutes to be calmed before ecologists hold down the bee and superglue the 4.8 millimeter by 8 millimeter monitor onto their backs. Then, they are placed in a range where radio frequency identification tags will detect bee behavior as far as 1.2 meters from the closest detecting unit.
"This piece of the puzzle, of bee behavior, is absolutely vital if we are to understand better why our bees are struggling and how we can reverse their decline," says Sarah Barlow, a scientist as Kew Gardens.
These trackers will observe interactions with other bees, flora, fauna, and crops. They will observe the world around us and hopefully give us the answers.
- Kelly Wolvington
The bees are chilled for ten minutes to be calmed before ecologists hold down the bee and superglue the 4.8 millimeter by 8 millimeter monitor onto their backs. Then, they are placed in a range where radio frequency identification tags will detect bee behavior as far as 1.2 meters from the closest detecting unit.
"This piece of the puzzle, of bee behavior, is absolutely vital if we are to understand better why our bees are struggling and how we can reverse their decline," says Sarah Barlow, a scientist as Kew Gardens.
These trackers will observe interactions with other bees, flora, fauna, and crops. They will observe the world around us and hopefully give us the answers.
- Kelly Wolvington