Global Butterfly Emergency!

It’s all bad news from right around the world as far as butterflies are concerned.

Butterfly Conservation, a UK charity with over 37,000 members, is calling for the British Government to declare a “Nature Emergency”. They say 80% of their butterfly species have declined since the 1970s and a third of moth numbers going in that same period. As a first step they ask for an immediate and permanent ban on butterfly-harming neonicotinoid pesticides.

On another continent Jaime Rojo, Wildlife Photographer of the Year is also concerned, focusing his appeal on the monarch migration in North America. It is estimated that the monarch population has dropped by 90% since the 1990s. As well as pesticide use, climate change and habitat destruction the growing of avocadoes in what was once the monarchs’ natural habitat is also part of the problem.

“Here in NZ we should be worried as well,” said Jacqui Knight, founding trustee of the Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust (MBNZT). “Even more so – as most New Zealand people don’t even know about the beautiful species we do have. If you don’t know something exists, you don’t realise it is on its way to extinction.”

The MBNZT is currently bringing back the beautiful NZ red admiral to Auckland where it hasn’t been seen for at least twenty years since the time Auckland was sprayed with insecticide for the painted apple moth.

“Also, people are always amazed to learn about our beautiful forest ringlet – ONLY found in NZ and with no close relatives, with numbers in serious decline.?”

Even the monarch butterfly here in NZ is at risk. Norm Twigge, former chairman of the MBNZT, has seen a huge drop in numbers over recent years at the butterfly sanctuary at Te Puna Quarry Park, Tauranga.

“People don’t mean to kill them, but they are. They protect them from wasps and other predators, but they do so in unsanitary conditions so in the end they are breeding butterfly diseases,” he said. “Just as you find human diseases spreading in unhygienic conditions, so it is for all of our wildlife.”

“If you can’t do it properly, you shouldn’t do it at all.”

In Christchurch MBNZT members have seen a huge decline in the number of monarchs that overwinter in their city’s parks.

For these reasons the MBNZT has produced a list of “Dos and Don’ts” for those people who are keen to help the monarch population bounce back over the summer and in future years.

“We urge monarch lovers to follow the advice on our website,” said Jacqui. “There are so many ways in which we can help our beautiful butterflies.”

https://www.nzbutterflies.org.nz/project/dos-and-donts/

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