In the words of Bert le Clos, ‘unbeeeeelievable‘.

No? Fair enough, I thought it was a kak joke, too.

Despite the fact that we are in the midst of what has been called the ‘insect apocalypse‘, there is good news on the Wallace’s giant bee front.

The bee, which as big as a human thumb, was thought to be extinct, until researchers recently found it once more in the Indonesian jungle.

On January 25 of this year, they took the first photos and videos of a living Wallace’s giant bee in history, calling it a “stunning rediscovery”.

You really have to applaud their efforts, with this below via CNN:

The team — composed of natural history photographer Clay Bolt, entomologist Eli Wyman, behavioral ecologist Simon Robson and ornithologist Glenn Chilton — spent years studying the bee and slogged around in humid Indonesia forests for days before stumbling upon one…

Only two other lucky fellows are documented to have seen it in person before. The first was British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who discovered the giant bee in 1858 while exploring the tropical Indonesian island of Bacan. Entomologist Adam Messer became the second in 1981.

Just look how stoked Bolt is with the discovery – it’s impossible not to like him:

Here’s a little more on how they managed to obtain the footage:

On the last day of a 5-day area search, the team’s guide and interpreter spotted an interesting-looking nest about 8 feet off the ground. When Bolt climbed onto a tree to take a closer look into the mound, he saw a lone female Wallace’s giant bee.

“It was a remarkable, humbling moment,” Bolt said. After the team recovered from the intial excitement, they set out to photograph the bee in its natural environment.

They waited a couple hours for her to emerge from the nest, but she was camera shy.

Finally, the researchers decided to tickle the bee with a piece of grass, and she walked right out into a large tube. Once they released her from the tube, Bolt was able to capture the bee flying in front of the nest.

We’re happy for you, guys.

It’s also believed that the forests of the remote North Moluccas islands could be home to other rare species, so perhaps their work is not yet done.

[source:cnn]