The U.S. Fish Wildlife Service has placed the rusty patched bumble bee, once common in 28 states and two Canadian provinces, on the endangered species list, the first bee to receive such protection in the contiguous 48 states.
Populations of the bee, which thrived in the grasslands and prairies of the upper Midwest and Northeast, have plummeted by 87 percent in recent decades, leaving scattered populations in 13 states and one Canadian province.
The Fish Wildlife Service said that without protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, the rusty patched bumble bee faces extinction.
Read more at Yale University
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