Sirachai Arunrugstichai
Hornet Hunters
Research team dedicated to giant hornets native to Asia, South Korea, 2023
Category - Change Makers: Reasons for Hope
A joint research team consisting of American entomologists from Ramsey Research Foundation and a South Korean traditional hornet hunter are collecting specimens of the Northern giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) in a park in Andong, in the Republic of Korea. In the past few years, giant hornets originating from Asia have been found in Europe and America outside their native range, seriously threatening wild bee populations and the honeybee industry, as well as posing risks to human health due to their notorious ferocity. The team of scientists I worked with chose to study these hornets in their homeland in order to build a comprehensive sequence database to better trace and track the population movement of these invasive pests across the globe and mitigate the ongoing impacts on one of the most important pollinator insects.
24-70 mm f/4 Lens - 1/500 sec at f/4.5 ISO 100