A project is under way to try and help one of the UK's "most threatened" species of bumblebee. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is leading a £907,000 three-year scheme alongside the University of Cambridge to recover the Moss carder species. It said the initiative would focus on landscapes across Cornwall's coastal grasslands, dunes and heathland as well as grazing marshes and sea walls in Kent and the upland fringe landscape of the North Pennines.
During the project, the trust said it would work with landowners to trial "small-scale habitat interventions" to identify those which work well while gaining a better understanding of the species' behaviour and needs. Moss carder bumblebees are largely found in small, fragmented populations, according to the trust. It said it was distinctive with a velvety covering of ginger-yellow hairs across its body and no black hairs.
The trust said habitat loss and fragmentation were likely to have a bigger impact on the Moss carder than many other species as it typically foraged closer to its nest than most other bumblebees. Amy Plowman, head of conservation and science at the trust, said: "This is a hugely exciting and ambitious three-year project that gives us a real opportunity to turn the tide for one of the UK's rarest bumblebees." Funding worth more than £530,000 has been provided to the project by Natural England's Species Recovery Programme. Tylan Berry, Natural England's species and nature recovery networks senior officer, said the Species Recovery Programme was helping "take practical action to halt species decline and support nature recovery across England".
Berry said the Moss carder was "one of England's most threatened pollinators". "Projects like this demonstrate how targeted investment can support practical conservation action on the ground," he added. Follow BBC Cornwall on X, external, Facebook, external and Instagram, external.
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