Bees: A Source of Life – Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal, Botanical Garden, Montréal, Québec

This sculpture was contributed by the Monrtal borough of Verdun. It is entitled: "Bees - A Source of Life."

There are over 16,000 known species of bee on Earth. Only 5% of them live in colonies. Honeybees are among these. A single hive may house as many as 80,000 bees. As Albert Einstein said: "If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would have only four years left to live."

Since the early 2000s, the world has been faced with a crisis: colony collapse disorder. This is a phenomenon whereby worker bees abandon their hive in large numbers, never to return. The root of this problem remains unknown.
Hypotheses to explain it include the presence of the parasitic varroa mite, a virus or the Nosema apis microfungus. Studies show that other factors also contribute to the decline of bee colonies: climate change, the decreasing numbers of flowering plant species, as well as the damage caused to insects by pesticides and air pollution.

For a description of the art of Mosaiculture and of the Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal competition, please turn to the first photo in this series at:

www.ipernity.com/doc/jonathan.cohen/33872015