Our
Pollinators
An important part of our work is to get more people thinking about the value of Ontario’s native pollinators to the functioning of our ecosystem. While pollinating flowers may seem distantly removed from the everyday life of most humans, the work of pollinators impacts some really essential global processes!
Around 96% of all plants on Earth are flowering plants, and approximately 87% require animal pollination to make the fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds reproduce.
Who are our native pollinators?
Numerous different kinds of animals can pollinate, such as ants, beetles, wasps, flies, hummingbirds, and even slugs! However, the best pollinators are the bees and the butterflies…
Bees
Think you know bees? There are around 400 species of bees native to Ontario, and honey bees aren’t one of them! The best feature to identify a bee is the hair – bees have feathery hairs all over their body that help them collect pollen.
Butterflies
Butterflies are showy insects that are best known for their beautiful wings, which are actually covered in tiny, microscopic scales! The easiest way to identify a butterfly from a moth is by looking at their antennae – if you see a feather-like shape, then you’ve actually found a moth!
