NPR’s Ailsa Chang searches coastal California for wild bumblebees with conservation biologist Leif Richardson, one of the leaders of the California Bumble Bee Atlas.
NPR’s Ailsa Chang searches coastal California for wild bumblebees with conservation biologist Leif Richardson, one of the leaders of the California Bumble Bee Atlas.
Action packed:
CHANG: I’m holding a bee with my bare fingertips. Oh, he’s squirming. I can feel his little legs scraping against my fingers.
And the fact that there are male bees out here tells Leif that the coveted queen bees must be around here, too. And remember, at this point, we’re also still keeping our eyes peeled for that one species that Leif had mentioned - the bombus crotchii. And then boom, all of a sudden, we find a double whammy.
Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Whoa.
CHANG: That’s huge. What is that - queen?
RICHARDSON: This is a queen of Crotch’s bumblebee.
CHANG: That’s…
A queen of the very species that we were looking for. And she was at least two to three times bigger than any other bee we saw that day. And, you know, the excitement - it didn’t even end there because we spin around, and I see my editor, Christopher Intagliata, looking down in sheer horror.
Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Whoa.
CHANG: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
RICHARDSON: What? Whoa.
CHANG: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: What is it?
CHRISTOPHER INTAGLIATA, BYLINE: [Expletive].
CHANG: Christopher is covered with something…
When he realizes his legs are covered with hundreds of giant black ants