Scotland’s Bumblebees are Buzzing!

Magic can happen when nature is allowed to thrive! In a bustling, built-up area north of Perth, in Central Scotland, Rewilding Denmarkfield, a project dedicated to restoring nature and wildlife habitats to green spaces, has yielded some impressive outcomes. Perhaps the most stunning  transformation, as The Scotsman reports, has been an estimated 116-fold increase in the local bumblebee population.

Bees in Scotland for Jan 23, 2025

Celebrating rewilding
Rewilding, as sustainability-focused organization, Rewilding Europe outlines, is a progressive approach to conservation. It’s about letting nature take care of itself through restoring land closer to its natural, uncultivated state. This gives space for natural processes to once again shape land and sea, and repair damaged ecosystems. 

“Through this process, wildlife’s natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habits,” as Rewilding Europe explains. 

Scotland specifically, has been praised for its successful rewilding missions, and what it regards as its bid to become the world’s first “rewilding nation”, reports Euro News. It mentions that a trailblazing pathway to Scotland as a “rewilding nation” was presented to government ministers in December 2024.The Rewilding Nation Charter calls on the Scottish government to commit to a 30 percent “nature recovery” of the country’s land and seas.  

Significantly, the paper emphasizes, polls indicate that 80 percent of Scots back government policies in support of rewilding.

Rewilding Denmarkfield
This specific rewilding project, Rewilding Denmarkfield, spans 90 acres in Perthshire, and has been going strong for over two years.

The Scotsman details that statistics from the project’s guiding charity show that since 2021, when a number of the fields managed by the project were still barley monoculture, just 35 bumblebees had been counted. But after a mere two years of restoration work here, the population swelled to 4056. Bumblebee diversity was also noted, with a doubling from five to ten different species.

How does the project log its insect populations? Its weekly pollinator surveys use the so-called  BeeWalk method, a national recording scheme run by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust to monitor the abundance of bumblebees on transects across the country. 

And as Scottish Pollinators shares, butterflies have fared well too, with numbers tripling in two years. Meanwhile, the numbers of spotted red-listed birds of conservation concern have also grown from 11 to 17 different species.

The project’s strategists let nature lead, as ecologist Ellie Corsie, managing the project since 2021, explains, and which she sees as the reason for such a massively positive impact on local bumblebee populations.

Over a couple of years, the bare soil and barley stubble were naturally colonized by 84 different plant species. These revived species include plants such as spear thistle, and smooth hawk’s-beard, that benefit native wildlife, but whose absence helped “sanitize” wildlife from the fields during intensive arable farming, along with the associated herbicide and pesticide use.

The heartwarming observation shared by local resident, Liz Myhill, with The Scotsman, about the visible habitat change resulting from this rewilding project, is music to the ears of conservationists: “The sound of traffic and a uniform sea of barley have been replaced by the most beautiful meadows, full of wildflowers, young saplings and the buzz of bees,” she says.

This diverse medley now erupts into color over spring and summertime, for the enjoyment of Myhill and everyone in the local community.

What’s the difference between bees and bumblebees?
Homeschooling blog, Books and Willows summarizes the key differences. While bumblebees vary in appearance, they are all rounder, plumper and more densely furry than honeybees, while their abdomen tip is more rounded, though both types of bees Both carry pollen in special ‘baskets’ on their hind legs. Bumblebees produce less honey, nest underground, and are less social than honey bees.  

Nonprofit The Wildlife Trusts explains that Great Britain, which includes Scotland, is home to around 270 bee species, 24 of which are bumblebee species. 

Significantly, bumblebees are considered better pollinators, and are loved by farmers for this role in helping crops grow. A key reason is that the larger size of bumblebees means they have more surface area than a honeybee on which pollen  can collect.

Bumblebees also have an unusual ability to “buzz pollinate” that species such as tomatoes, blueberries, peppers and zucchinis require in order to reproduce. The pollen of these fruits and vegetables is trapped inside their anthers where it is produced, and can only be released by the vibrations produced when bumblebees rapidly vibrate their flight muscles.

In addition, bumblebees adapt better to colder climates, able to raise their body temperature to enough for flying by “shivering.”

Respected ecologist, author, and Bumblebee Conservation Trust founder, Dave Goulson, voiced his deep admiration for the Rewilding Denmarkfield project, in terms of its achievements such as the recovery of local bumblebee populations, and despite the proximity of both urban sprawl and intensive farmland. 

In a conversation with The Scotsman, he points that: “At a time when good news about biodiversity is in short supply, Rewilding Denmarkfield provides a wonderful and inspiring illustration that wildlife can recover, and quickly, if we just give it a little space and let nature work her magic.”