Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

No-Mow November started a few weeks ago. For me it started on the grounds of Tekapo Primary School, where we had a decent discussion about pollinators… especially bumblebees!   Mating season!   The kids love bumblebees! They are gentle and very active – even in the coldest months of the year. They can warm themselves up through wing-beating action while having the wings set to “neutral”.   I told the kids that we have four different species of Bumblebee in New Zealand – all four imported from the UK (in the 1800s), to help with the pollination of plants, crops and trees from all sorts of parts of the world. Mostly to do with the various lengths of their tongues, which pollinate different sized flowers.   Three of the four species are quite easy to find in New Zealand, but the fourth (the short-haired Bumblebee – Bombus subterraneus) is quite rare. It occurs largely in the Mackenzie country and in a few patches of inland of Otago.   When I told the kids that Tekapo Region is where the