Butterflies fight losing battle with climate change

by Amy Judd | September 6, 2008 at 06:49 pm

668 views | 19 Recommendations | 17 comments

Butterfiles are in decline in the UK because they are being forced into small pockets of the countryside, as climate change is drastically affecting their habitat.

Dr Rob Wilson, an ecologist at Exeter University, will tell a conference on climate change there this month that the break-up of suitable butterfly habitats by urban spread and agriculture is driving the "staggering" declines. He will say that while rising temperatures should in theory benefit butterflies by allowing species living in the South to spread further north, in reality Britain has seen some of the greatest losses of butterfly diversity in Europe.

They cannot fly the long distances between suitable habitats so they are forced to stay in one place.

In the past 35 years, species such as the High Brown Fritillary and Grizzled Skipper have suffered declines in their distribution of 79 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively.

Speaking before the conference, Dr Wilson warned that butterflies could be an early indicator of the fate in store for other insects, animals and plants as the climate warms. British temperatures have risen by between 1C and 1.5C since the 1970s.

In the past 100 years, five butterfly species have become extinct, while the remaining 54 species are in rapid decline.

Conservationists fear that without them, many ecosystems will collapse. Sir David Attenborough, the BBC wildlife broadcaster and president of the charity Butterfly Conservation, recently spoke of impending "environmental catastrophe" unless immediate action was taken to save Britain’s butterflies from extinction.

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Karen Hatter

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 19:31 on September 6th, 2008

Awwww! They're my favorite bug!

I keep hearing that it is the smaller creatures on this earth that will alert the planet to impending disaster.

Uwe Paschen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 20:20 on September 6th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

I am starting to favour a Human Extinction so the Earth may live on. We are the Worth cancer this planet has ever known. Yet we have the intelligence and power to be Good Stewards and protect life rather then destroy it.

bill hicks

at 06:38 on September 7th, 2008

We have tons of butterflies at my home at Lake O'Pines TX all year. A lot of species too, as much as in Costa Rica when I lived there.

Marcel Pellerin

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:22 on September 7th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. I remember when i was younger Monarch butterflies would migrate up from Mexico to where i lived in New Brunswick. Now a days in the summer i see a few of them around but not nearly as many that used to migrate. they're dying out.

Jim_Higham

at 11:26 on September 7th, 2008

As a member of Butterfly Conservation I am only too keenly aware of the sharp decline in many species of butterflies over both the long and short term. A few will benefit from climate change, but many will fail to move to more suitable climates and habitat as the local conditions change and will die out alas locally, and if that happens on a wide scale, that can lead to extinction nationally and globally.

Butterflies are key indicators of the state of nature - if they go then many other species are probably threatened. Its often the case that a species dies out because of the loss of another it depends on (and not always in any obvious relationship - its often very complex).

Jim_Higham has contributed a photo to this story.

david_phil

at 13:22 on September 7th, 2008

Butterfies are not just delicate to look at but are also delicate in nature. Only moderate changes in enviroment can cause drastic effects on butterfly populations so anything to let the public know what is happening with the wildlife such as been written here by amyjudd can only be a good thing. Keep it up.

HC²

at 15:23 on September 7th, 2008

Over the past couple of years I have seen the numbers of many varieties dwindling. It seems such a shame.

HC² has contributed a photo to this story.

macrodomo

at 15:49 on September 7th, 2008

Not only in UK. I'm always looking for butterflies in order to take photos, and people in the villages said to me that every year are less species. I don't know is if the climate change but something is wrong in this planet.

macrodomo has contributed a photo to this story.

Patrick C..

at 20:55 on September 7th, 2008

Martin Down

Patrick C.. has contributed a photo to this story.

wightbutterflies

at 22:51 on September 7th, 2008

I have been taking photos of butterflies on the Isle of Wight for the past few years and have generated a web site to catalogue the different species that I have found there - www.wightbutterflies.co.uk

I have noticed a decline in the number of butterflies seen and noticed that they seem to be on the fly at slightly different times to what they were in previous years. I am guessing this is to do with the change in climate. The 'hotspots' on the island for seeing butterflies are Brook Chalkpit and Brading Down. There are other areas but I know when I turn up at these places I am usually successful in seeing some. These photos were all taken at Brook chalkpit and I was fortunate enough to manage to photo the small blue there last year. I was unable to find it on trips this year.

wightbutterflies has contributed a photo to this story.

Kentishman

at 00:50 on September 8th, 2008

My photo was taken in France, but we do have a butterfly friendly garden at home in Kent.

Kentishman has contributed a photo to this story.

blackartz

at 02:57 on September 8th, 2008

Taken on a lovely sunny day in May 2007 whilst walking the Dorset coastal path towards Durdle Door. I was initially pretty excited as the Lulworth Cove Skipper, an extremely rare and localised species, can be found in this area and I'm not too great at my Skipper field identification. In light of this news story, that's presumably because they're declining.

blackartz has contributed a photo to this story.

Dom G (not verified)

at 09:37 on September 8th, 2008

There's clearly an interesting debate to be had here but why should it take place on NowPublic.com and not on the Telegraph site where the article originated from? Amy's summary of the main points adds little to the original piece. The photos are excellent but the people responsibe deserve a reciprocal linking agreement also - why should big media get preferential treatment?

kwsanders

at 17:54 on September 8th, 2008

My photos were taken in Alabama, USA. I live in very rural area and have noticed fewer butterflies over the past couple of years.

kwsanders has contributed a photo to this story.

gerrypopplestone

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:33 on September 9th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's a sad story though! I thought there had been an increase in butterflies. I can vaguely remember lots of them when I was a kid (which was centuries ago!). I do my bit by growing that shrub that attracts them (buddleia) in my front garden but I have to admit Ive never seen any there.

m5eay.geoff

at 02:05 on September 10th, 2008

m5eay.geoff has contributed a photo to this story. I think that the story does overdramatise the probpelms. To say that butterflies cannot fly long distances is not very accurate. Some do not fly and distance but other migrate huge distances.

Geoff.