The National Park Service is Not Feeding Watermelon to Bee Colonies
The Claim
The US National Parks Service is planning on feeding watermelon to local bee colonies to give them a burst of glucose energy before winter strikes.
News posted on
Emerging story
In September 2020, social media users claimed that the US National Park Service was feeding watermelon to bee colonies. Supposedly, bees will harvest any moist source of sugar and convert it into honey to store for the winter, and so watermelon is an excellent way to give the bees a boost to make sure they can survive and continue to pollinate valuable crops into the future. This claim has subsequently gone viral on social media, specifically Twitter, and has been shared tens of thousands of times.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation into this claim reveals it to be false. While most of the above claim is true, and while it is true that some beekeepers do engage in such behavior, and that bees are vitally important to natural park ecosystems, National Park Services do not feed their ecosystems artificially. First of all, this violates their ‘leave no trace’ principle, which prohibits permanent interference with the ecosystem by introducing artificial elements. The reason for this prohibition is that ecosystems are precisely calibrated and leaving watermelon exposed for example may attract animals besides bees and overall disrupt more than help. Second of all, the National Park Services do not feed their ecosystems artificially because they prefer to tend to them naturally and allow them to feed themselves.
