Clay Bolt first laid eyes on a rusty patched bumblebee impaled on a pin in an insect collection at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2014. Brown and dull yellow with a faded rust-colored patch on its abdomen, the fuzzy, dime-sized relic got him thinking about the species’ precarious status in the wild.

Once common in flower-rich grasslands and prairies across the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, this bee now buzzes about in only 0.1 percent of its historical range—a trend documented among many other North American bee populations as well.

There are nearly 4,000 native bee species in North America, including 47 species of bumblebees, and many are declining or are at risk of extinction. 

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