Zoo Field Trip 11/14/13

Summary by Lillian Shallow

Photographs by Zachary Zollman

     The Roosevelt Bee Group recently accompanied Ms. Sarah Barnard on a trip to the world renowned San Diego Zoo. It was a wonderful and very educational trip. Unfortunately, the zoo's observational bee colony has mysteriously died, and we suspect that it has suffered a terrible case of CCD (colony collapse disorder), so there weren't any bees on exhibit. However, we did have the opportunity to observe some wild bee hives that the San Diego Zoo has allowed to inhabit their property. We were only able to find two; one in "The Lost Forest", and the other near the primate exhibits on the "Monkey Trail." We do know that there are others, but we do not know how many because the zoo does not do any type of research on these bees, but graciously allows them to live at the zoo.

     As for the currently empty observational hive, the Bee Group brainstormed ideas and theories about why the colony died, and how to improve the hive. We also learned many fun facts about bees, such as the fact that the zoo generally has hives of Cordoba bees, which are European and therefore they are not as resilient to disease. This may have led to the downfall of the hive at the San Diego Zoo.

     In conclusion, our trip to the zoo was very informational, and provided our group with a new outlook on observation hives in general. In the end, we were left with this question; What makes observation hives work, and why or why not?

This enclosure used to house a bee hive. We got a chance to see it in the San Diego Zoo's Insect House.

This is first of the two wild bee hives that we found living at the San Diego Zoo.

This is the second of the two wild bee hives that we found living at the San Diego Zoo.

This is a panel about the role of insects in ecology. It pointed out that insects can pollinate our plants, eat our garden pests, and decompose our waste.