Missing bee buzzes back into the wild

Around 100 short-haired bees (Bombus subterraneus) were brought from Sweden to repopulate areas where it previously thrived.

Around 50 of the healthiest were released at the RSPB’s Dungeness reserve in Kent, close to where they were last recorded living wild in the UK in 1988.

It is hoped they will create new colonies, feeding off the red clover flowers in the area and expand into other parts of the country.

Dr Nikki Gammans, the project officer, said reintroducing species into the UK had worked in the past with the red kite and the large blue butterfly.

“It’s a really exciting new scientific procedure, something which hadn’t been attempted before with bumble bees,” she said.

“It’s very exciting for the bee species to get a second chance.”

The short-haired bee population declined rapidly over the space of 60 years because of habitat loss but a healthy population lives in the southern Swedish province of Skane.

Around 100 bees were captured using bee nets at the end of April as part of the Natural England-backed Species Recovery Programme, and also included the RSPB, Hymettus and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Placed in temporary hibernation, they were brought over to a quarantine facility at the Royal Holloway University in Surrey.