National Geographic explorer Krystle Hickman will bring her artist’s eye and knowledge of bee diversity to Santa Barbara for an event hosted by Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH), 6-7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9 at the museum.
Hickman will present an illustrated visual journey demonstrating what it’s like to spend a whole day tracking and photographing native bees in the field. She will reveal how understanding the behaviors of bees can help you photograph and distinguish species for science and the satisfaction of your own curiosity.
Although introduced honeybees get most of the attention, there are more than 4,000 species of native bees in North America, and almost 100 are present in Santa Barbara alone, organizers said.
For Hickman, native bees “are the unsung artists of ecosystems. Many of these bees are specialists, evolved to pollinate specific flowers. If we lose the bee, we may lose the flower.”
Documenting the presence and behavior of native bees builds understanding of how these pollinators contribute to functioning ecosystems and economies, SBMNH said.
Hickman has popularized native bees through her Instagram account @beesip, which offers her close-up photography presented with information about species’ behavior and ecology.
She draws viewers into the tiny worlds of bees that “wrap their babies in flower petals,” bees that need bare soil to build nests, and bees that sleep curled up in flowers or upside-down in holes in the ground.
Hickman’s work also offers a window into the painstaking, patient process of obtaining these intimate views of overlooked wild animals.
“Most people walk right past them, but if you sit still long enough, the world starts to reveal itself,” she says. “I don’t just find bees, I wait for them to find me.”
Hickman’s quest to track and photograph the hidden diversity of the state’s native bees culminated in her book “The ABCs of California’s Native Bees.”
California Review of Books said of Hickman’s book: “Be warned. This book might induce readers to become more careful observers of bees, seek venues for nature walks or become curious about native plants.”
Inspiring appreciation of nature, community science, and conservation is central to Hickman’s work.
“I’m here to help you find the thousands of native species hiding in plain sight,” she said. “Every photo is a record of the world we can’t afford to lose.”
Hickman’s work has taken her around the globe, documenting behaviors new to science and capturing some of the first images of living representatives of many species.
Her work has been featured across television, digital platforms, and podcasts. She has presented at the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Colombia, and lectured at Harvard University and UCLA.
Tickets for the talk are $12 general admission, $10 for museum members. Tickets and more information are available on the SBMNH website.
Hickman’s lecture is presented with support from the Dr. Christel Bejenke Wittenstein Fund, an endowment-like fund formed in 2010 to provide an annual income stream to support the museum’s public programming efforts focused on science and nature.