Oregon Public Broadcasting

One of the West Coast’s leading bee scientists says four species of bumblebees may be approaching extinction – including one native to southern Oregon.

University of California Davis professor emeritus, Robbin Thorp, says Franklin’s Bumblebee, seems to have disappeared from its entire range -- from northern California north to Roseburg.

Thorp says the declines are not the result of the most obvious environmental factors.

Robbin Thorp: “Other bumblebees are thriving in the same areas. So it’s not climate change, it’s not habitat destruction, it’s not pesticides, or the more common things.”

Thorp says he suspects that the problem arose some years ago, when queens from the bumblebee species were sent to Europe to commercialize the breed.

He says they likely contracted a disease, or genetic defect, and then spread it throughout the species.

Thorp says the affected bumblebees tend to pollinate wildflowers.