A Sting In The Tale: My Adventures With Bumblebees

A Modern Day Dr. Dolittle For Bumblebees!

If you were smitten by the world of Dr. John Dolittle by Hugh Lofting and love bumblebees, you will adore Dr. Dave Goulson’s A Sting In The Tale. Dr. Dave Goulson is a world-renowned scientist who is admired for his expertise, advocacy and ground-breaking research on bumblebees. He has also been featured numerous times on The Organic View Radio Show, to discuss the impact of neonicotinoids on bumblebee health. His research has effectively demonstrated the lethal impact of neonicotinoids on bumblebees. It remains undisputed, despite the protestations of pesticide manufacturers.

Are Children Disconnected From Nature?

In this day and age, children are bombarded by manufactured content which barely simulates the beautiful world that can only be found in nature. I asked Dr. Goulson if he had any advice for encouraging children to study and learn about our pollinators.

“The thing that really worries me is that kids increasingly don’t spend much time outdoors. They are not allowed to go out without supervision so much. Most kids don’t really encounter nature very much. It is not really done much with schools either. Many schools don’t really taken the kids out too much. They don’t teach them about the natural world. What could be more important than understanding the world we live in,” stated Dr. Dave Goulson.

A Sting In The Tale

Quite naturally, his interest in pollinators, especially bumblebees, stemmed from early childhood. A Sting In The Tale is a charming, educational and humorous view of the bumblebee world from an expert’s eyes. It is a great book for parents, teachers or people who are enamored by the natural world we live in.

Bee Fascinated!

If you ask someone who is young or old to draw a picture of a bee, he or she will typically draw a bumblebee. They are well-known because of their fuzzy appearance and by the sound of their deep buzz. They are quite friendly and go about their business, stinging only as a defense, mostly ignoring other animals and people.

According to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, there are around 250 species of bumblebee in the world, and most of these are found in the northern hemisphere, although South America has a few native species, and New Zealand has some which were introduced from Britain.

Listen To The Interview

In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, world-renowned bumblebee expert, Dr. Dave Goulson talks to June Stoyer about his adventures with bumblebees. Please click the video to listen to the interview.

Meet Dr. Dave Goulson

After a childhood chasing butterflies and collecting bird’s eggs, Dr. Dave Goulson studied Biology at Oxford University, and then earned a PhD on butterfly ecology at Oxford Brookes University.

Shortly afterwards, he received a lectureship at University of Southampton, where he stayed for 11 years. It was there that he began to specialize in bumblebee ecology and conservation. In 2006, he became Professor of Biology and Stirling University.

In 2006 he founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a membership-based charity devoted to turning the latest research into on-the-ground conservation.

The trust now has 8,000 members, 10 staff, and has created over 2,000 hectares of flower-rich habitat for bumblebees. For this work Goulson was awarded the prize of ‘Social Innovator of the Year’ by the Biology and Biotechnology Research Council in 2010, and the Heritage Lottery Award for the best Environmental Project,also in 2010. In 2013, he moved to Sussex University. Dr. Goulson has published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects, authored Bumblebees; their behavior, ecology and conservation (2010, Oxford University Press) and A Sting in the Tale (2013, Jonathan Cape), a popular science book about bumblebees. He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2010, he was BBSRC “Social Innovator of the Year” and in 2013, won the Marsh Award for Conservation Biology from the Zoological Society of London. For details of research and publications, please visit: Goulson Lab