Topic
Efforts to protect and restore populations of bees, butterflies and other pollinators, often through habitat planting and land management.
Cornell researchers report that two sheep per hectare raised bee and lady beetle abundance 38% over mowing at one New York solar farm. Honey bees drove most of the gain, and at four sheep per hectare the advantage over mowing was gone.
Reality
Radboud University researchers counted 30,000 flower visits on Dutch dikes and found insects crowd unmowed strips for about four days, then mostly leave. Lead author Constant Swinkels says councils should vary mowing dates across whole landscapes to keep rare species.
Reality
uOttawa researchers found roadsides mown twice a year and spot-treated held 45% more pollinators and 23% more species than conventionally maintained ones. That gives road managers a cheap option, though the design cannot yet say which of the two changes is responsible.
Reality
Australian bee researchers say only three of the country's more than 1,700 native bee species are on the national threatened species list. Their review blames thin research funding for the missing data and sets out a conservation plan built on behaviour studies and long-term monitoring.
Reality
Iowa State researchers released 100 Bluetooth-tagged monarch butterflies in September: 75 reared under three conditions and 25 caught in the wild. Tracking each route lets the team test whether indoor rearing helps or hurts the trip to Mexico.
Reality