Honeybees survived for weeks below volcano ash after Canary Islands eruption

About 50 days after the Cumbre Vieja volcano within the Canary Islands erupted in September, unleashing lava flows and destroying houses, church buildings and shops, a beekeeper returned to one of many devastated villages to see what the volcano had executed to his hives.
What he discovered shocked beekeepers and delighted scientists: Inside 5 hives that had been lined in volcanic ash had been tens of hundreds of bees, nonetheless alive and buzzing away.
Lava flows from a volcano as seismic exercise will increase in current days within the space on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021. (AP)
Not solely had the bees managed to outlive the warmth and noxious gases of the volcano, however in addition they had averted hunger by feeding off shops of honey contained in the hive, mentioned Antonio Quesada, a beekeeper within the Canary Islands and a spokesperson for the Gran Canaria Beekeepers Association.
Their survival offered a glimmer of fine information for La Palma — a resort island within the Canary archipelago of Spain — which was devastated by the eruption, which continues to spew lava. The island of about 80,000 folks employs greater than 100 beekeepers who handle hives that maintain hundreds of thousands of honeybees and who’re important staff within the native ecosystem and key financial gamers for many who promote honey all through the area.
The bees’ capacity to remain alive in such dire situations was additionally a reminder of their toughness, a attribute that’s usually ignored amid information tales in regards to the very actual threats they face from pesticides, parasites and the lack of habitat.

“It’s incredible how such a tiny animal that has been around for hundreds of thousands of years can maintain that resilience, that ability to survive,” Quesada mentioned in an interview Wednesday.
The bees, identified within the area because the Canary black bee, used propolis, a resinlike combination typically referred to as bee glue, to seal themselves contained in the hive, he mentioned.
“They protected themselves from the gases” of the volcano, Quesada mentioned. The bees additionally made certain to go away open a tiny pathway to the surface that they may later use to get out, he mentioned.
Lava flows from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP)
That habits is typical of honeybees, who use propolis, which they produce from substances they gather from vegetation and buds, to plug tiny gaps within the hive to guard it from rainwater and drafts, mentioned Nathalie Steinhauer, a researcher within the division of entomology on the University of Maryland.
Still, the truth that the bees on the island managed to spend weeks contained in the hive insulating themselves from such oppressive situations was shocking — and even inspirational, Steinhauer mentioned.
“It is a very empowering story,” she mentioned. “It tells a lot about the resilience of honeybees.”
For greater than a decade, beekeepers and researchers have raised alarms about bees — which play a important position in agriculture — dying at excessive charges, even throughout the summer season when bees are producing meals and caring for his or her younger.

Honeybees are usually not endangered, and beekeepers are capable of substitute misplaced colonies all year long, mentioned Steinhauer, who can be a science coordinator for the Bee Informed Partnership, a consortium of universities and analysis laboratories.
But the excessive mortality price is regarding and particularly worrying for beekeepers, who should spend appreciable money and time changing dying colonies.
In the United States, the mortality price has been notably excessive, despite the fact that the full variety of honeybee colonies has remained pretty secure over the previous 20 years, in keeping with the Bee Informed Partnership.
Still, honeybees stay adaptable and resourceful, mentioned Keith Delaplane, director of the Honey Bee Program on the University of Georgia and a professor of entomology.
Smoke rises from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP)
Bees will construct hives in tree hollows or deserted tires, he mentioned.
Stories abound of honeybees that survived forest fires after the employee bees, fanning their wings, managed to decrease the temperatures of the hives. When a fireplace destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a beekeeper who stored a number of hives on the roof was thrilled to search out that the bees had stayed alive by gorging on honey.
Delaplane mentioned entomologists usually traded tales of colonies that survived after their hives had been swept away by floods.
In the case of the hives in La Palma, the bees had been additionally fortunate. The volcanic ash that fell on the hives was porous and lightweight, which allowed for oxygen to enter, Elías González, president of the ADS Beekeepers of La Palma, advised EFE, a Spanish information company.

Hundreds of different hives had been additionally saved and have been taken to different elements of La Palma. Those bees can’t return to the villages the place they as soon as had been as a result of a lot of the vegetation they depend on is roofed in volcanic ash or hardened lava, Quesada mentioned.
The story of the bees that lived by way of a volcano is more likely to change into well-known amongst entomologists, Delaplane mentioned.
“You can’t get much more dramatic than volcanic ash burying bee hives and the bees surviving,” he mentioned. “It’s a little piece of happy news, and heaven knows we need it.”
This article initially appeared in The New York Times.