The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is a UK charity devoted to protecting bumblebees. With three species of bumblebee already extinct in the UK, and 9 more threatened, their mission is to reverse the decline of bumblebee populations in the UK.

Part of that mission is raising awareness about bumblebees - their life cycle, their diet, their ideal habitat, and what we can do as big stinky humans to help bumblebees survive and thrive. This animation is all about the nesting habits of queen bumblebees, and features our star - a white tailed bumblebee - as she emerges from hibernation and goes about seeking the perfect place for a new nest.

I am an unabashed animal nut, always have been, my bookshelves are groaning with natural history books and I never miss an Attenborough documentary, so it was an absolute joy to design and animate these fuzzy queens. I needed to strike a balance between realistic (the viewer should be able to identify the species shown, as well as the other featured fauna and flora) and appealing (I'm afraid to say - bumblebee legs are a bit…offputting to non-entomologists, not to mention their faces!).

The video went down a storm, with tens of thousands of views on youtube. It was written and designed in such a way that it could be split in to smaller snippets for use on instagram and other social media, where it has been racking up the likes and shares, raising awareness and hopefully doing it's part in reversing the plight of the bumblebee!