How many bumblebee species are there in Germany and where do the mostly black and yellow Brummer live? From March 20 to April 9, 2025, we can all help to answer science again. As part of the Hummel Challenge, volunteers can send photos of bumblebees via app and thus support biodiversity research.
Bumblebees and other wild bees are among the most important pollinators, both for agricultural crops and for many wild plants. The furry insects contribute to our food supply, but also to maintain biological diversity and intact ecosystems. Bumblebees are therefore protected and must not be disturbed or caught or killed.
But how many bumblebees and bumblebee species are there in Germany, how are you in the face of climate change and where do you live? Researchers at the Thünen Institute have systematically recorded this since 2020 with the Wildbee Monitoring project in agricultural landscapes. Since 2022, volunteers have also been able to contribute to biodiversity research by collecting data and helping to document the Brummer. The team organizes a hands-on campaign every year in spring and in summer: the Hummel Challenge.
What does the Hummel Challenge come up with?
The next campaign begins on Thursday, March 20, 2025 and runs until April 9, the summer campaign will follow from June 20 to July 3. If you want to participate, you don’t need any previous knowledge, just a smartphone. Volunteers should take many different bumblebees as possible and save the pictures and geodata in the free app obsidentify. Suitable places are, for example, flowers in gardens, parks or on field and forest edges.
“It is easiest to take pictures of bumblebees when visiting flower. “The photos should show the bumblebee completely and be focused. There is also instructions on-line.
An artificial intelligence then determines the uploaded photos which bumblebee species are. In addition, experts check the pictures and assignments. If a species cannot be identified, the bumblebee is assigned to the recognizable characteristics of a collection group.
Information about the condition of the bumblebees
Last year, the participants even detected a new way for Germany in this participation campaign, the Tonerdhummel. “We are very excited to see which Hummel treasures the citizens will find in Germany this year,” says Ogan. The organizers hope for pictures of bumblebee queens, among other things, who are now becoming active again in spring. “Observations of the queens give us indications of how the Hummel year could develop,” explains Martina Gehret from the Bund Naturschutz Bavaria. “We hope that as many interested people as possible participate and thus help to enlarge the knowledge of bumblebees.” If you want to check your own knowledge of the Brummer during the photo campaign, you can do so in an accompanying one quiz Test the Hummel Challenge and win something with a little luck.
Source: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forest and Fishing / Bund