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BBC News
a day ago
- Science
- BBC News
Somerset butterfly count is expected to drive conservation effort
An annual butterfly count is under way after it logged the lowest numbers on record last year. There was a 35% decline in butterflies and moth species recorded across Somerset in 2024 - with a total of 43,547, compared to a total of 66,486 in 2023 according to the Buttery count has been running for 15 years but last year the charity said butterflies were at "their lowest ebb" on the back of 50 years of decline - with the wet weather contributing to the poor results. "What we really need to see is which species have been able to bounce back from that weather of last year, and which species might still be struggling," said Dr Dan Hoare from the charity. The gatekeeper butterfly was the most spotted species in Somerset last year, with more than 9,000 reported sightings. To join in the count people can sign up online and record their results on the website or app. Dr Hoare said: "Butterflies are an indicator of the health of our environment. "With about half of Britain's butterfly species already threatened or near threatened with extinction, it's really important that we understand what's driving these declines in nature – and we can use butterflies as an indicator. "When we get things right, they bounce back really quickly, and they can show us where nature recovery is working, but when their numbers are declining, that's a real sign that we need to do more."He added that Somerset was a significant area for butterflies with "really lovely rural habitats".The survey runs until 10 August, with the results revealed the following month.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'This is a chance to turn curiosity into conservation 'as national emergency declared
A national butterfly emergency has been declared following record-low sightings across the UK. The warning comes after Greater Manchester recorded just 6,340 butterflies and day-flying moths during last year's Big Butterfly Count. It is part of a wider decline seen across the country, according to conservation charity Butterfly Conservation. People are being asked to take part in the Big Butterfly Count (Image: Harrison Bates) The charity has described the figures as the lowest in the history of the count and part of a long-term downward trend linked to habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use. Dr Richard Fox, head of science at Butterfly Conservation, said: "This is a chance to turn curiosity into conservation and make a real contribution to protecting butterflies in the UK for generations to come. "Butterflies are beautiful, yes — but they're also incredibly important bioindicators. "This means that as they continue to disappear, as they have over recent decades, it indicates something is going seriously wrong in our natural world. "We need to heed that warning and take action before it's too late." In Greater Manchester, 1,491 counts were submitted in 2024, with the Large White butterfly the most commonly recorded species. In Greater Manchester, 1,491 counts were submitted in 2024 (Image: Supplied) The Big Butterfly Count began on Friday, July 18 and continues until August 10, with Butterfly Conservation urging people of all ages and backgrounds to take part. Butterflies have declined by 80 per cent since the 1970s, and Dr Fox said their rapid response to environmental changes makes them key indicators of wider ecosystem health. Dr Fox said: "If we lose butterflies, we lose more than beauty — we lose balance in our ecosystems and that will have serious repercussions for wildlife in the UK. "Taking part in the Big Butterfly Count only takes 15 minutes and it's something everybody in Greater Manchester can do. "If you do one thing for nature this year, get out for the Count this summer. "Every count really does make a difference." READ MORE: I tried budget bakery's new upmarket sandwich - this is what I thought Popular children's author's heartfelt words after being selected for Bolton award Youngsters stepped-up to take on a challenge to help others Taking part in the count involves spending 15 minutes outdoors, recording the butterflies and day-flying moths seen during that time, and submitting the results online or via the free Big Butterfly Count app. Each sighting helps scientists track species trends and understand the effects of climate and habitat changes. Participants' data also contribute to a live, interactive biodiversity map of the UK, accessible through the Big Butterfly Count website and app. More information and resources are available at
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Yahoo
These women are raising endangered butterfly larvae from prison: ‘They reconnect with their own brilliance'
Trista Egli was standing in a greenhouse, tearing up strips of plantain and preparing to feed them to butterfly larvae. Of the many things the team here has tried to tempt larvae of the Taylor's checkerspot – a native of the Pacific north-west – with, it is the invasive English plantain they seem to love the most. 'The big thing for me is being part of an effort to save an endangered species,' says Egli, 36. 'It is a big thrill.' Egli is one of seven women incarcerated at the Mission Creek correctional facility, located a two-hour drive from Seattle, who are part of a year-long program that takes captured butterflies, harvests their eggs, and oversees the growth of the larvae before they are released into the wild where they will turn into adults. Last year, scientists working with the team released more than 10,000 larvae. The adult butterflies live for just a handful of fabulous, wing-fluttering days. The women working in the program are dressed in red sweaters – indicating they are outside the prison's perimeter – rather than the usual prison garb of khaki pants and white shirts. Many of the women speak of their pride working on a project that feels like it is making a positive contribution to the world. Lynn Cheroff, 42, said she had been thrilled to talk about it with her two young children when they come to visit. When she telephones her mother about the work, her mother tells her she is proud. Another woman, Jennifer Teitzel, appreciates the sense of order and discipline the program demands and instills. Every detail about the eggs and larvae has to be collated and recorded. It is the women's responsibility, and nobody else's, seven days a week. At the same time, while the program run by Washington state department of corrections (DOC), is part of an effort to prepare the women for life once their sentences are over and to smooth the path to work or college, there is no sugar-coating their predicament. Egli, who has three young children, is serving a nine-year sentence for a 2020 drunken hit and run that left a woman with permanent brain damage. 'I am paying the price for that every day. I can never go back and undo what happened,' she says. 'But I can try to make sure the rest of my life is about making the world a better place.' The program at Mission Creek has been operating for 10 years. Kelli Bush, the co-director of Sustainability in Prisons Project, a partnership between the DOC and the Evergreen State College in Olympia, says a crucial component are graduate students who visit to offer educational support. Bush says in addition to providing the women something to feel proud about as many deal with shame and guilt, the program also gives them confidence about their own capabilities. 'They reconnect with their own brilliance, they reconnect with their own intelligence,' she says. 'It's routine to hear people say 'I didn't think I was smart and I'm realising I'm doing science'. [With] hands-on learning and incorporating the academic components, pretty soon people find themselves reading peer-reviewed scientific journals and saying. 'I can do this too.'' The Taylor's butterfly's preferred habitat is open grasslands and prairie. For thousands of years, such landscapes were created and maintained by active burning by Indigenous communities. Without such native stewardship, and with ever-increasing threats from developers and town planners, the amount of grassland has drastically diminished. Today in the Pacific north-west, the butterfly is restricted to eight healthy populations in Washington state, two in Oregon and one in Canada's British Columbia. A favored place is Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), operated by the US army and situated 10 miles from Tacoma. Training with heavy artillery has long kept the prairie free of unwanted vegetation. Yet when the Taylor's was added to the US Endangered Species Act list in 2013, it presented military officials with a challenge; how could they continue to make use of the base without harming a species now protected by federal law? Dan Calvert, of the Sentinel Landscape Partnership, a coalition of federal and state groups that works with landowners to promote sustainable land use around military installations, says JBLM contains '90% of the prairie habitat in western Washington'. He estimates the classification of the Taylor's checkerspot and other species means the military 'cannot use half the base for about half the year'. One of the efforts to boost the numbers of Taylor's checkerspot in locations off-base – and thereby allow the military to work unimpeded at the base – led to funding for the Mission Creek project by the Department of Defense (DoD). 'It's this whole, big process with the DoD funding efforts to support the military mission of JBLM by creating off-base habitat to mitigate your on-base impact,' says Calvert. The collaboration has helped boost the Taylor's checkerspot. This year could be a record year for releases of adults. In 2024, the program released about 10,900 larvae. However, there's a dark cloud looming over the program. Mission Creek is set to close in October because of budget cuts. There is a plan to transfer the women and the program to a prison at Gig Harbor, located 25 miles away, but there is some concern among current participants it could simply be cut entirely. Egli, who is set to become eligible for a work-release program under which she would serve the last 18 months of her sentence working outside the jail and returning to do what's known as a DOC re-entry facility every night, says the program changed the person she was. She has been sober for four years, and says she is focused on the future and earning enough money to buy a home. 'At some point, I'd like to go back to college,' she says. 'But I know I have to work hard and get some money before I can do that.' This story was amended on 22 July 2025. An earlier version reported that more than 67,000 larvae were released last year; in fact, this should have said more than 10,000. Also, the military cannot use half of Joint Base Lewis–McChord for parts of the year because of the classification of a range of species, not just Taylor's checkerspot.
BBC News
22-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Springwatch's Ajay Tegala backs Big Butterfly Count
A TV wildlife presenter said the annual Big Butterfly Count was helping scientists understand more about the health of the have been urged to record the butterflies and moths they see to help experts assess the seriousness of the "butterfly emergency".Ajay Tegala - a countryside ranger at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire and, before that, at Blakeney Point in Norfolk - said it was important because "butterflies are really good indicator species for the wider health of our environments".Last year's count - organised by the charity Butterfly Conservation - yielded concerning results, with low numbers prompting it to declare an "emergency". During the Big Butterfly Count 2025, which runs until 10 August, participants will keep tabs on numbers for 15 minutes in a chosen location, then log the results on a website or Tegala, 35, who has appeared on Coast, Countryfile, Winterwatch and Springwatch, is an ambassador for Butterfly said he had always had an "affection" for insects, in particular moths and butterflies."It's really important that we get the data so that we can find out basically what things are looking like and what's it looking like this year so far. "It's very early, but It's looking a lot more positive..." said Mr Tegala, who grew up in East Anglia and carries out wildlife surveys on the Norfolk Broads in his spare added: "Anybody can get involved, and it's just a case of spending 15 minutes in sunny weather recording what butterflies and day-flying moths you see [and] submitting that data."The count has been running for 15 Conservation put last year's poor results partly down to wet weather—but said the long-term trend was hugely concerning."The 2024 figures followed a pattern of long-term decline as butterflies struggle against a backdrop of habitat degradation, climate breakdown and pesticide use," a spokesperson said. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Yahoo
Wild Things: Hooray for the butterflies
Wild Things columnist Eric Brown experiences strange thoughts as he goes on a sunlit, rural Kent hill climb seeking to boost sighting numbers for his 2025 butterfly list. Regular readers of these wildlife jottings might recall how I've bemoaned the paucity of entries on my butterfly list this year. It rarely advances much past 20 in any year but it seemed a tad disappointing to be stuck on just 11 species as I prepared to tear off the June calendar page. Then a decision to go on a butterfly expedition paid handsome dividends. Wild Things: Can you help with this year's Big Butterfly Count? Friday, June 27 started warm and got a whole lot hotter. My pal Jim and I headed for the RSPB nature reserve at Northward Hill, in the agricultural belt of Kent near Halstow, after learning that scarce species such as white-letter hairstreak, purple emperor and silver-washed fritillary had been seen there. As we opened the car door on arrival, a raven could be heard kronking overhead, soon coming into view circling the car park in unhurried, lazy, fashion. A lesser whitethroat could be heard singing. Two ticks for the annual bird list before we'd started searching for butterflies. As we walked along the path, butterflies were abundant. We saw peacock, red admiral, large, small and green veined whites, lots of ringlets, small heath, gatekeeper, meadow brown, speckled wood and comma. Fantastic but we'd already listed most of those. Then a marbled white showed up, then another and another. They were everywhere. A great year-list tick. But to locate the trio we really desired we needed to visit the upper slopes of the reserve from a different entrance. Here we neatly vaulted over a style (okay, we more or less fell over it but we were tiring in the heat) and followed a narrow footpath, mostly uphill. We'd paused for a breather when we met another climber descending. He inquired what we were looking for, offered to show us the best spots for the three butterflies we sought, about-turned and retraced his steps at a steady pace. Jay - I think he said his name was Jay - had already completed this ascent once but speedily stomped ahead like the Grand Old Duke of York marching his men to the top of the hill. I struggled to keep up. Maybe the air was rarefied here but the mind began to play tricks. Was that a nun in those trees singing Climb Every Mountain? Were they mountain goats over there being pursued by a snow leopard? Could I really hear the faint strains of scouting song The Happy Wanderer, a 1954 hit for The Stargazers singing I love to go a-wandering along the mountain track? Gatekeeper at Crossness 2010 Image: Jim Butler A shout brought me back to reality. Jay had spotted a fritillary but I'd missed it while daydreaming. Jim missed it too. But we did see holly blue and brimstone. I'm not saying it was high here but were they white clouds way below us? Finally we reached a plateau and the blessed Jay raised an arm saying: "There." Following his pointing finger we could see what appeared to be a dead leaf on an Elm tree. As our eyes focused it metamorphosed into a motionless dark butterfly. With the benefit of binoculars, silvery-white lines were apparent on the underwings - a white-letter hairstreak. Jay, still daisy-fresh, invited us to accompany him another 300 yards or so to where he'd seen purple emperor earlier. Jim and I looked at each other and politely declined on grounds of exhaustion. Wild Things: Birds enjoy an insect boom We started back down, said goodbye to jaunty Jay and gratefully flopped onto a pathside bench with the temperature topping 27C. Two excellent butterflies showed in nearby grass; brown argus and a skipper. To differentiate between Essex and small skipper, Jim related, you must determine the colour on the underside of the antennae. Neither of us much fancied scrabbling around on hands and knees in an area smelling of dog poo so we called it a small skipper. But it might have been Essex. Eventually we toppled back over the style in untidy fashion and tumbled thankfully into a car seat. The sunlit car interior must have resembled the post explosion temperature at Chernobyl. No matter. We'd seen 16 different species - five more than my entire number for the year - and the annual list now stood at a far more satisfying 19. A marbled white Image: Jim Butler As I drifted off to sleep that night I swear I could hear The Stargazers singing Valdereee-he, Valderaaa-ha, with a knapsack on my back. *Please spare 15 minutes between July 18 and August 10 to participate in the annual Big Butterfly Count. Details from
