Agrochemicals Threaten Bees, New Study Finds

This undated handout photo released by Heather Mattila, PLOS ONE, shows Apis cerana, a species of bee on a hive in Vietnam. (AFP)
This undated handout photo released by Heather Mattila, PLOS ONE, shows Apis cerana, a species of bee on a hive in Vietnam. (AFP)
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Agrochemicals Threaten Bees, New Study Finds

This undated handout photo released by Heather Mattila, PLOS ONE, shows Apis cerana, a species of bee on a hive in Vietnam. (AFP)
This undated handout photo released by Heather Mattila, PLOS ONE, shows Apis cerana, a species of bee on a hive in Vietnam. (AFP)

Exposure to a cocktail of agrochemicals significantly increases bee mortality, but regulators may be underestimating the dangers of pesticides in combination.

Bees pollinate 71 types of plants that provide 90 percent of the world's food, according to the United Nations. The steep drops in insect populations worldwide in the recent years have prompted fears of dire consequences for food security and natural ecosystems.

A research reviewed dozens of published studies over the last 20 years that looked at the interaction between agrochemicals, parasites and malnutrition on bee behaviors -- such as foraging, memory, colony reproduction -- and health. It found that pesticide interaction with other chemicals was likely to be synergistic, meaning that their combined impact was greater than the sum of their individual effects.

These "interactions between multiple agrochemicals significantly increase bee mortality," said co-author Harry Siviter, of the University of Texas at Austin.

"Regulators should consider the interactions between agrochemicals and other environmental stressors before approving their usage," he told AFP.

"The results demonstrate that the regulatory process in its current form does not protect bees from the unwanted consequences of complex agrochemical exposure," he added.

"A failure to address this will result in the continued decline in bees and their pollination services, to the detriment of human and ecosystem health," the researchers concluded.

In a commentary also published in Nature, Adam Vanbergen of France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment said that pollinating insects face threats from intensive agriculture, including chemicals like fungicides and pesticides, as well as a reduction of pollen and nectar from wild flowers.

"This study confirms that the cocktail of agrochemicals that bees encounter in an intensively farmed environment can create a risk to bee populations," Vanbergen wrote.

He said there had been a general focus on impacts on honey bees, but added there is a need for more research on other pollinators, which might react differently to these stressors.



10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.