Rare bumblebee to get boost from bilberries in cages

By PRESS ASSOCIATION

PUBLISHED: 00:04, 26 March 2019 | UPDATED: 00:04, 26 March 2019

One of the UK’s rarest bumblebees is being given a boost – by putting the flowers it feeds on in cages.

Conservationists and volunteers have planted 1,000 bilberry plants inside specially-designed metal cages that will protect them from grazing so they can provide food for the bilberry bumblebee in its Peak District stronghold.

The bilberries, which flower in the spring and early summer before heather and other moorland plants, are a vital food source for the bilberry bumblebee and its larvae.

But tender young bilberry plants are also a favourite of grazing animals such as deer and sheep, stunting the bushes’ growth and leading to a lack of mature plants that the threatened bee favours.

So bilberry has been planted across 60 acres of Hathersage Moor near Sheffield and protected by cages by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and the Eastern Moors Partnership between the RSPB and National Trust.

In the past, grazing pressure on the moor has led to a lack of mature bilberry bushes, and the new project will build on changes in how the land is managed – which has already seen bilberry begin to make a comeback.

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Protected wildlife allegedly killed on Peak District shooting estate

 Police investigate after animal rights group films badgers allegedly being caught in snares and shot on the Moscar estate

Hunt Investigation Team’s film footage on the Moscar estate, a grouse-shooting estate in the Peak District.

Josh Halliday  North of England correspondent

Tuesday 11 July 2017 13.29 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 11 July 2017 22.00 BST

Police are investigating allegations that protected wildlife was killed on a shooting estate owned by the Duke and Duchess of Rutland.

Footage filmed by an animal rights group allegedly showed badgers caught in snares and shot this year.

The Hunt Investigation Team (HIT) , which filmed the footage, said it was part of “horrific wildlife persecution” on the Moscar estate, a grouse shooting estate in the Peak District.

It is a criminal offence to injure, kill or ill-treat badgers under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 in England and Wales.

The Moscar estate, near Bamford in Derbyshire, is owned by the 11th Duke of Rutland, David Manners, and Emma Manners, the Duchess of Rutland.

The pair, worth a reported £140m, also own the 6,000-hectare (15,000-acre) Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, a stronghold established at the Norman conquest that has appeared in films including The Da Vinci Code and The Young Victoria.

A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Rutland said in a statement: “They were not aware of any alleged illegal activities being carried out on the land. They are horrified by these allegations and will investigate them fully.”

HIT said an estimated 400 wire snares were set across the estate alongside a variety of traps to catch mammals and birds.

Continued and video  

Saving the sound of summer – Pollinating the Peak campaign launches

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Richard Bunting

A major Peak District-based campaign to help bumblebees launches today (Thursday 30 April 2015) with a unique Pollination Conference in Chesterfield and the arrival of a stunning bumblebee wood sculpture at the town’s world-famous Crooked Spire.

The three-year Pollinating the Peak initiative – run by Bumblebee Conservation Trust with Chatsworth, Chesterfield Borough Council, HSG UK, Little Green Space, Moors for the Future Partnership and Plain Green – will involve communities in conservation and creating bee habitats, and encourage people to take part in BeeWalk, a national bumblebee recording scheme.

If successful, the campaign will be rolled out in other areas of the UK by Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a conservation charity dedicated to securing the future of the country’s bumblebees.

“Bumblebees keep us healthy by pollinating our fruit and vegetables, but they’re in trouble. Their populations have crashed, with some species already extinct and others threatened. We want to raise awareness about these iconic insects and how we can all help save the sound of summer,” said Gill Perkins, Bumblebee Conservation Trust conservation manager.

The all-day Pollination Conference at Chesterfield’s Winding Wheel Theatre – to be opened by the town’s Mayor, Alexis Diouf – features interactive workshops, beekeeping and cookery demonstrations, children’s activities, films, and bees working in a ‘bumblearium’.

Speakers and guests include former Peak District National Park Authority chief executive Jim Dixon, pollination scientist from Dublin’s Trinity College Erin Jo Tiedeken, writer and entomologist Tim Gardiner, Bumblebee Conservation Trust chief executive Lucy Rothstein, and other experts. Acclaimed author William Kirk will speak about gardening for bees and will be signing copies of his book, Plants for Bees.

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