Cat Among the Penguins

In this episode of Cat Among the Penguins we talk to Professor Dave Goulson from the University of Sussex, author of books including A Sting in the Tail, Gardening for Bumblebees and Silent Earth, and Dr Elynor Moore, a researcher studying honeybee diets.

Tell us what you think. Do you agree with our arguments? Do you have experiences with honeybees or other bee species? Add a comment below this post, and we’ll be discussing these in our Series 1 wrap-up episode.

Links and resources:

Elynor Moore recently publisher her work on an alternative food source for honeybees. You can read the summary or the full paper: Elynor Moore et al. (2025) Engineered yeast provides rare but essential pollen sterols for honeybees. Nature 646, 365–371 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09431-y

In the episode, Becky reads an extract from this paper: Wade A Pike, Clare C Rittschof (2025) Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) and Wild Bee Resource Competition: How Big Is This Problem? Integrative and Comparative Biology 65, 893–918 https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf072

To read about what contribution pollinators make to food production, see: Shanden Khalifa et al. (2021) Overview of Bee Pollination and Its Economic Value for Crop Production. Insects 12(8):688. doi: 10.3390/insects12080688