bees

To recreate a natural environment, researchers made nesting boxes, and then attached them to 10 Montreal billboards. Twice over the summer, part of the nests will be taken back to the lab at Université de Montréal to look for a way to beef up the bee population.

Almost a quarter of the estimated 20,000 bee species on Earth may be in decline, researchers have found. The January study is the first time the well-being of pollinators has been assessed on a global scale, with previous concerns of declining wild pollinator populations based on local or regional studies.

In North America, bumblebees — a vital native pollinator — are estimated to have seen their relative abundance crash by 97 per cent, with the sharpest decline occurring in the past 30 years.