The beautiful Bumble Bee, people began to explore the use of bumble bees for crop pollination in the late 19th century. Bumble bees were intentionally introduced from the UK to New Zealand, which had no native bumble bee species, in order to pollinate red clover plants used for livestock forage. Anyone using bumble bees for pollination at this time was relying on wild populations, as domestication methods had not yet been developed.