We hear rescue stories every day.
asserted
We → hear → stories
A dog pulled from a flooded ditch.
asserted
dog → pull → ditch
A cat coaxed out from behind a fridge.
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cat → coax → fridge
But how often have you heard about a bumblebee with a broken wing?
asserted
you → hear → wing
Gilly McArthur found one lying in the sun beside a road.
asserted
McArthur → find → road
She took it home, made it a bed of flowers and expected it wouldn’t last the day.
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it → take → day
Instead, the bumblebee now climbs McArthur’s arm, works her way around the back of her neck and disappears into her hair.
asserted
bumblebee → climb → hair
The woman named the queen bee ‘Phoebee’, and strangers from around the world are obsessed with her.
asserted
strangers → name → her
“I couldn’t leave her by the roadside.
asserted
I → leave → roadside
So I brought her home and made her a bed of flowers.
asserted
her → bring → flowers
I thought she’d be dead in a day or so,” McArthur told The Guardian, describing the extraordinary rescue.
asserted
McArthur → think → rescue
Contrary to McArthur’s fears, Phoebee survived and also became an internet celebrity.
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Phoebee → survive → fears
McArthur was due to leave on a week-long sailing trip shortly after the rescue.
asserted
McArthur → leave → rescue
She couldn’t leave the bee behind, so she brought Phoebee along.
asserted
she → leave → Phoebee
The woman posted about their voyage together on Instagram.
asserted
woman → post → Instagram
It’s been nearly a month since I found her struggling on a hot concrete pavement in my town, unable to fly because one of her wings had been lost; well, it's now a postcard from us on the West Coast of Scotland
asserted
it → find → Scotland
When I picked her I hadn't expected her to last this long!" she wrote on Instagram in August.
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she → pick → August
The next morning, McArthur woke to messages from around the world.
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McArthur → wake → world
People wrote about bumblebees they had rescued, butterflies they had nursed and small creatures they had tried to save.
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they → write → bumblebees
The stories kept flooding in.
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stories → keep → ?
McArthur is moved by the response but still a little puzzled by it.
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McArthur → move → it
“I think it might be because the world is in such a polycrisis at the moment, and everyone is wanting to pull back to something authentic and kind,” she told the newspaper.
uncertain
she → think → newspaper
“Perhaps Phoebee reminds people of a time when bumblebees were more prolific, in a world that isn’t on fire: lots of the messages said the videos helped them feel more grounded in a world where the algorithms are usually so grounded in clickbait and violence.”
asserted
algorithms → remind → clickbait
On 24 October, McArthur posted a collage video of Phoebee, celebrating 100 days since the rescue.
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McArthur → post → rescue
She also shared how the experience had been ‘weird’ yet eventful.
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experience → share → ?
“Sure, it's a bit weird, but in this world that we seem to be racing through and destroying at great speed, these small interactions of wonder, and truly observing something tiny and perfectly designed for life, can pack a lot of punch.”
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interactions → seem → punch
McArthur also spoke about her familiarity with bumblebees.
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McArthur → speak → bumblebees
“I've a bit of history with bumblebees, rescuing them on swims, popping them onto my head for an easy swim back to shore, so it probably wasn't too surprising that in the end, one would find me, or me it, for this sort of slice of life.
asserted
one → rescue → life
Too much to say in a post about this and the wider observations that the bee is teaching me, so I'd better keep writing and see where it lands!” she wrote on Instagram.
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she → say → Instagram
Over these days, McArthur also observed some of Phoebee’s unique traits.
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McArthur → observe → traits
“She’s fascinating: she spends a lot of time cleaning herself like a cat.
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she → ’ → cat
And I could watch her putting her long tongue out and getting the nectar out of the flowers for hours.”
uncertain
her → watch → hours
Britain has 24 species of bumblebee and more than 240 species of solitary bee.
asserted
Britain → have → bee
Most bumblebees live for only a year.
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bumblebees → live → year
Newly mated queens are the exception, hibernating in autumn and emerging in spring to start colonies of their own.
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queens → mat → own
Phoebee has not mated, so her future is uncertain.
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future → mat → ?
In his view, Phoebee had some natural advantages.
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Phoebee → have → advantages
She is a buff-tailed bumblebee, one of the biggest and fluffiest of the British species, and she is a queen, which he described as “the biggest and fluffiest of them all”.
asserted
he → describe → them
He praised McArthur’s compassion.
asserted
He → praise → compassion
“A third of British wild bees and hoverflies are in decline and a quarter of European species are at risk of extinction because of the loss of their natural habitat, climate change and bee-killing pesticides,” he says.
asserted
he → kill → habitat
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
