Butterfly Conservation, a British charity devoted to protecting butterflies, has declared a “Nature Emergency” following the results of its latest annual Big Butterfly Count.
Started in 2010, the citizen science survey assesses the health of butterfly populations across the UK with a simple method: asking tens of thousands of people to sit outside on a sunny day and count all the butterflies they see. The 2024 Big Butterfly Count found the lowest number of butterflies in 14 years.
This isn’t just a sad anecdote for lovers of colorful bug—it’s actually far more serious than that, pointing to larger environmental concerns and calling back to the bee death fears of the 2010s.
Butterflies are crucial pollinators, and losing them would threaten plants as well as the overall ecosystem: Butterflies also serve as prey for various animals like birds, bats, and small mammals.
“Butterflies are a key indicator species; when they are in trouble, we know that the wider environment is in trouble too,” said Richard Fox, an ecologist who has been with Butterfly Conservation for 25 years.
“Nature is sounding the alarm call,” Fox said. “We must act now if we are to turn the tide on these rapid declines and protect species for future generations.”
For one thing, experts are blaming the unusually wet, windy spring and cool summer for the dip in butterflies.
“Butterflies need some warm and dry conditions to be able to fly around and mate,” said Dan Hoare, Butterfly Conservation’s director of conservation. “If the weather doesn’t allow for this there will be fewer opportunities to breed, and the lack of butterflies now is likely the knock-on effect of our very dreary spring and early summer.”
However, this massive drop is still concerning and points to more serious issues, including habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use, according to experts.
As such, Butterfly Conservation has declared a “Nature Emergency” and is calling for government intervention. The charity is hoping to put an end to the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which are dangerous to pollinators like butterflies.
“When used on farmland, these chemicals make their way into the wild plants growing at field edges, resulting in adult butterflies and moths drinking contaminated nectar and caterpillars feeding on contaminated plants,” said Fox.
“Many European countries have already banned these chemicals, it’s time for the UK to follow suit and put the natural world first. If we don’t act now to address the long-term drivers of butterfly decline, we will face extinction events never before seen in our lifetime.”
Just this month, scientists announced they might have found a way to protect pollinators from pesticides. They discovered that tiny hydrogel microparticles fed to bees can bind to the harmful neonicotinoid pesticides and help pass through insects’ bodies, at least.
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The post ‘Butterfly Emergency’ Declared, After the UK’s Record-Low Butterfly Count appeared first on VICE.
