Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Honeybee

Amy forgot to tell me what Ivor is today, so I am picking his animal for the second day in a row! Today Ivor is a European honey bee.

Highly social, Ivor loves to get things done. He communicates through dances and body language to other members of his hive, conveying directions to nearby food sources. He plays a crucial ecological and agricultural role as a large percentage of food crops depend on honeybees for pollination. And while you may see honey bees in the wild, Ivor, like all common European honey bees, is actually domesticated; the numerous honey bees you see in the wild are actually feral cousins of kept bees.

Interestingly, male honeybees are relatively solitary and short-lived, surviving only long enough to mate. This doesn't really seem like Ivor's personality. He seems more like a worker bee - longer-lived, social, and industrious. This means, though, that today he's actually a sterile female.

1 comment:

Jonathan Simeone said...

hi Sam,

It was nice to see what kinds of animals Ivor had been over the last few days. I am looking forward to finding out what he is today. I will come back later this morning to find out. When I read the post, I will let him know what he is.