Big Butterfly Count in UK

After an unusually cold and wet spring Butterfly Conservation announced the next Big Butterfly Count, the camping will last till the 7th of August.
It is not just rare species that are at risk of extinction, but normal butterflies too – common species such as the small tortoiseshell have fallen by 79% since 1976.

The Big Butterfly Count is a nationwide citizen science survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment. It was launched in 2010 and has rapidly become the world’s biggest survey of butterflies. Butterfly Conservation provides an ID chart and a smartphone app to help identify the butterfly species and record any sightings.

For now, more than 22,000 citizens joint the campaign and counted over 230,000 butterflies. Even the royal family decided to support it. On her Instagram page, the Duchess of Cambridge posted a picture of young Princess Charlotte holding a Red Admiral butterfly in her hands.

Butterfly Conservation is encouraging us all to count these incredible creatures because not only are they beautiful creatures to be around but they are also extremely important. Butterflies are vital parts of the ecosystem as both pollinators and components of the food chain

The quote from the Duchess’s of Cambridge Instagram page

Compared with the 10-year average in 2022 a lot of species were affected by rainy spring weather. Nature conservationists are worried about the rising number of weather events caused by climate change in the UK and want to learn about prospects for native butterfly species.

Some species are being found in new parts of the country, while others are becoming harder to find at all, Butterfly Conservation said.

In our Apollo2020 project, we also have citizen science camping! This international project aims to recreate the Parnassius apollo populations in 3 functional areas: the Sudetes and White Carpathians in the Continental bioregion and strengthen the Austrian population in the Alpine bioregion.

With #followapollo on social media, you can find beautiful pictures of the Red Apollo butterfly in different regions. So we highly recommend you to go for a stroll right now and capture some pictures of amazing butterflies in your region to help scientists save them.