Loftwings and Demons

Fruits are pretty amazing things from the perspective of animals like ourselves. Plants give us tasty and nutritious treats that are not used to help feed themselves like leaves are. These take quite a bit of energy to produce, though, so it may seem a bit puzzling at first that plants do this at all.

However, if we look at it from the plant's perspective, it's clear that this energy can benefit the plant as well. Because it can enable a larger geographic distribution for its seeds than would otherwise be possible. And so animals are enlisted in some brief plant childcare in exchange for food. 

I think there's an implicit agreement here that as humans, we often exempt ourselves from. I think to honor radically different lifeforms from ourselves like plants we should think about how we can place ourselves back into the stream of life around us to facilitate these sorts of activities, keeping in mind that we have additional abilities we can use to aid plants that other animals may not possess.

Do Farmed Honeybees Harm Wild Bees?

Wild pollinator numbers are decreasing worldwide. Some of the main causes for this are habitat loss, climate change, chemicals, disease, parasites and invasive species. Even though habitat loss is the leading cause for pollinator decline, the addition of farmed honey bees into their environment may be adding additional pressure. 

Wild pollinators form a crucial part of the ecosystem and we wouldn’t be able to survive without them. They not only pollinate native wild plants, but they also pollinate food crops alongside farmed honey bees; in some cases, wild pollinators are more successful. An example of this would be a stimulating buzz produced by solitary bees and bumblebees that triggers a flower to release pollen; honey bees can’t do this.

Honey bees are an invasive species to most of the world. Unfortunately, even when honey bees are farmed where they are native, they still have a negative impact on wild pollinators.