Where Have All The Butterflies Gone?
Once there were swarms of butterflies in our skies…but if you go out for a walk today, you will be lucky to spot one or two. Patrick Barkham, who has been a passionate lepidopterist since he was eight years old, laments the dramatic decline of these most extraordinary insects – and wonders if there is any chance of saving them.
A relentless decline may now become terminal for some of our best-loved species. Following the wet summer of 2007, last year was a disaster for butterflies: the lowest number was recorded for 27 years. Of Britain’s precious 59 resident species, 12 experienced their worst ever year since the scientific monitoring of butterfly numbers began in 1976.
“Whichever way you look at it, it’s linked back to the climate,” says Tom Brereton, head of butterfly monitoring at Butterfly Conservation. Climate change, he says, is a particular problem for our butterflies because our countryside is so fragmented. Decades of ploughing up grassland and ripping out hedgerows means that more than half our butterfly species are now confined to small islands of land. When the climate makes the current sites unsuitable, butterflies will no longer be able to fly elsewhere and find new sites.
If you had an intact countryside, butterflies should be going through the roof, but the species can’t move through the countryside like they once would have done,” says Brereton. “Habitats are too fragmented. There are vacant suitable habitats in parts of the countryside but the butterflies won’t necessarily find them.”
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Oh no! Save the butterflies!
