Michelle Boone: Using detection probabilities to find rare bumble bees – an example from the Midwest

Bees are small and highly mobile animals, which can make them difficult to detect in the landscape. Whether searching for bees for research, monitoring, or recreation, sometimes a species is present at a site but goes undetected. This phenomenon, known as imperfect detection, points to the need to consider factors that influence the detectability of target species. Is a specific bee species more readily detectable at certain times of day or in specific habitat types? Research on bee detection is still in its infancy, with most studies focused on bumble bees, so the speaker will share recent examples of research on detection of rusty patched bumble bees in Minnesota. The talk will introduce concepts of detection probability, occupancy, and search effort from a scientific context.