- “A Day of BEEing” public talk at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
- Wednesday, September 9, 6:00–7:00 PM, $12 general admission, $10 Members
- Featuring National Geographic Explorer and community scientist Krystle Hickman
- Hickman will reveal how knowing bee behavior helps her capture stunning photos
SANTA BARBARA, CA—National Geographic Explorer Krystle Hickman is bringing her artist’s eye and knowledge of bee diversity to Santa Barbara for a special evening hosted by Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Wednesday, September 9, 6:00–7:00 PM at the Museum, Hickman will present a stunningly illustrated visual journey demonstrating what it’s like to spend a whole day tracking and photographing native bees in the field. She’ll 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 a hundred are present in Santa Barbara alone. 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 our understanding of how these pollinators contribute to functioning ecosystems and economies. Hickman has popularized native bees through her Instagram account @beesip, which offers her astonishing close-up photography presented alongside 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 beautiful, carefully researched book The ABCs of California’s Native Bees, of which the California Review of Books wrote: “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 says. “Every photo is a record of the world we can’t afford to lose.”
Hickman’s work has taken her across 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, including Ologies. She has presented at the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Colombia and lectured at Harvard University and UCLA.
The Museum hopes to draw a wide audience to Hickman’s talk, from highly knowledgeable naturalists to the simply bee-curious. Copies of The ABCs of California’s Native Bees will be available for purchase after the talk.
Tickets for the talk are $12 general admission, $10 for Museum Members. Tickets and more information are available on the Museum’s website.
This lecture is brought to you 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.
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About the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Powered by Science. Inspired by Nature. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History connects people to nature for the betterment of both, drawing on collections that preserve the natural and cultural heritage of the Central Coast and beyond. Founded in 1916, the Museum is a private nonprofit supported in part by philanthropy, membership, and visitors. Members visit free. For more information, visit sbnature.org.
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