"The life of the bee is like a magic well. The more you draw from it, the more there is to draw."-- Karl von Frisch, 1968Equipped with a brain the size of a grass seed and a life span that seldom exceeds five weeks, it is easy to dismiss the bee. But in her brief life she serves successively as brood nurse, wax producer, comb builder, honey maker, home guard, and floral forager. And these actions are vital to the survival of several of the Earth's species, with some scientists even going as far as speculating that if all of the bees die we won't be far behind. As the planet experiences a dramatic drop in the bee population - a global disaster of potentially epic proportions - Candace Savage invites you to take a closer look at a group of insects both familiar and wondrously old.Bees: Nature's Little Wonders considers the diversity and biology of bees, including their peculiar sociosexual arrangements, their quirky relationships with flowers, and their startling mental abilities: what are you to make of insects that communicate through symbolic dances?Our guides in this exploration include some of the most audacious and ingenious scientists who ever lived, beginning with revolutionary Nobel Laureate Karl von Frisch and continuing through to the Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium of the present. The book also reports on the recent catastrophic losses of honeybees and identifies opportunities for the conservation of pollinators.

It is a must-read for conservationists, gardeners, and all other readers who care about the world around them.The text is enriched with cultural sidebars and is complemented by a stunning collection of images, including offbeat nature photography, historical illustrations, and works of art. Based on extensive research and created with passion, Bees is a fitting sequel to Savage's acclaimed Crows: Encounters with the Wise Guys of the Avian World.CANDACE SAVAGE is the author of numerous internationally acclaimed books on subjects ranging from natural history and science to popular culture. She is the author of the best-selling natural history titles Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies and Jays and Prairie: A Natural History, for which she won two Saskatchewan Book Awards and a Gold Medal from ForeWord Magazine in 2004. She is also a frequent contributor to numerous periodicals, including Canadian Geographic. She lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.