Where have all the British butterflies gone?

British Butterflies conspicuous by their absence

Small Tortoiseshell (Photo: Public Domain)

I have been in the UK since the end of August and have been sad to find that many once common British butterflies are conspicuous by their absence. It needs to be asked: where have all the British butterflies gone?

I remember a time when buddleia (Buddleia davidii) bushes were rightly also known as butterfly bushes, a time when you could count on seeing many species of butterfly feeding on the nectar provided by the colourful and perfumed flowering spikes. Those days, it seems, have long gone.

 Peacock on Buddleia (Photo: Public Domain)

Butterfly species that feed on Buddleia

Small White on Buddleia (Photo: Public Domain)

There used to be a butterfly bush in my father’s garden in Cardiff on which on a sunny day you could expect to see several small tortoiseshells (Aglais urticae), a peacock (A. io) or two, one or more red admirals (Vanessa atalanta), a comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album), several small whites (Pieris rapae) and a large white (P. brassicae) all at the same time. Now you are lucky to see a single butterfly. 

 Red Admiral on Michaelmas Daisies (Photo: Public Domain) 

At time of writing we are approaching the end of September, and despite the UK having had some very warm and sunny days, my butterfly sightings have been at an alltime low. Now you may be thinking, well, it is autumn, but the season shouldn’t matter. Hibernating butterfly species feed up in September and October too to help sustain them through the winter months ahead. The buddleias have mostly finished now but michaelmas daisies (Aster amellus) and orpine (Sedum telephium) are two commonly planted garden flowers that butterflies love, but this year the butterflies are missing.

It is not only flowers that butterflies will feed from. Red admirals, in particular, have a liking for rotting fruit and enjoy feeding in late summer and autumn on windfall fermenting apples and pears. There are plenty of apple and pear trees about but again a real shortage of butterflies. 

Reasons for the butterfly decline

The disappearance of so many British butterflies is a very worrying issue, not just because of the great beauty of these winged insects that we all enjoy seeing, but because it shows that all is not well in the environment. If butterflies are vanishing this will have an adverse effect on other creatures that feed on them. Many birds eat caterpillars, for example, so their numbers are affected by a shortage of food.

Many reasons have been put forward for the serious decline in many species of British butterfly, ranging from pesticides and herbicides, pollution, disease, parasites and Climate Change. A change in farming practices is another reason so many species are thought to be dwindling in numbers. 

 Comma on Buddleia (Photo: Public Domain)

Red admiral, small tortoiseshell, peacock and comma butterfly caterpillars all feed on stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) and there is no shortage of this plant, although I have seen it deliberately destroyed by herbicide.

The decline of the small tortoiseshell has been a real mystery, and a warm winter followed by a chilly spring, is thought to have done a lot of harm to this pretty species.

2016 has been recognised by scientists monitoring the situation as a very bad year for butterflies, and it can only be hoped that next year is a lot better. How many butterflies have you seen this year?

Garden Tiger Moth and its Woolly Bear caterpillar in serious decline

The very large and colourful garden tiger moth (Arctia caja), and its hairy caterpillar, which is known as a "woolly bear," were once very common in the UK but are now declining in numbers fast.

Arctia caja (Photo: Kurt Kulac)

The garden tiger has brightly coloured forewings that are patterned in creamy-white and chocolate-brown and the hind-wings are orange with blackish-blue spots. It has a stout, mainly orange body and a dark brown furry thorax.  The colours and patterns are very much given to variation too, although the moth is easy to identify.

This moth is found, as its name suggests, in gardens, but also on farms, in meadows, on railway and river banks and on sand dunes.  It has a liking for damp areas, though the caterpillars can often be seen crawling rapidly across paths and open ground on hot days.

The garden tiger moth emerges from late June to August. It used to be a very common and widely distributed moth in the UK but over the last 30 years its numbers have dropped by as much as 89%.  This is difficult to understand because its caterpillar will eat a very wide range of food-plants, including many weeds, such as docks and dandelions. It will also eat nettles and cultivated plants, such as rhubarb and cabbage. The caterpillar will feed on various shrubs, including the raspberry, blackberry and broom as well.

Garden Tiger Moth caterpillar (Photo: Acelan)

The garden tiger moth caterpillar is known as a woolly bear because it is covered in long black and ginger hairs. These hair are a good protection for the larva and can cause irritation.  The young caterpillars hibernate and feed up in the spring. It is thought that Climate Change and mild winters have caused the decline in this species, which has failed to adapt to the changes in the climate.

The adult garden tiger is so brightly coloured to warn predators that it tastes very bad and is toxic. The colouration and patterns are a very good example of "warning colours."

The garden tiger moth is one of many British moths and butterflies that have been declining in numbers and are no longer as common s they used to be, which is a worrying trend.

Endangered species of Russian wildlife

Wildlife in danger in Russia

Although Russia is such a massive country with so many forms of natural habitat and countless types of flora and fauna, it is also home to the last surviving populations of many endangered species of wildlife. Hunting, habitat loss, pollution, pesticides and Climate Change have taken their toll just like in so many parts of the world today.  But let us look at some of the incredible creatures found in Russia whose very survival is threatened.

Siberian Tiger

Siberian Tiger (Photo: Public Domain)

The Siberian Tiger or Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), lives as its names suggest in Siberia and specifically in the Amur region.  It is the largest type of big cat in the world. In the 1940s it was threatened with extinction but due to conservation efforts the species has made a recovery, although numbers are still very low and an estimated number of 562 Siberian Tigers is all that are left. The Siberian Tiger's Conservation Status is "Endangered". 

Siberian Tiger Quest in 2012

Oriental Stork

The Oriental Stork (Cyconia boyciana) is a truly beautiful bird that is now an endangered species with only about 400 pairs left. It used to live in China, Japan and Korea, as well as Russia, but it is believed to be extinct in Korea and Japan. 

Oriental Stork (Photo: Spaceaero2)

The Oriental Stork's decline has been attributed to hunting and habitat loss and the species is listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as "Endangered".

The Russian Desman

Drawing of the Siberian Desman (Photo: Public Domain)

The Russian Desman (Desmana moschata) is really a type of semiaquatic mole. It is one of the two surviving species of desman, with the Pyrenean Desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) being the other. Although nowhere near as badly in decline in numbers as the Siberian Tiger and Oriental Stork, the Russian Desman has a "Vulnerable" Conservation Status and is down from 70.000 in the 1970s to just 35,000 in 2004.  This species was once hunted for its fur but nowadays pollution, loss of habitat and invasive species, such as the Muskrat, are threats to its survival.

Russian Desman

It is found along the banks of ponds and streams in the Volga, Don and Ural River basins. It lives in small groups and burrows in the banks of where it is living. The Russian Desman feeds on fish, amphibians, insects and crayfish.

Saiga Antelope

Saiga Antelope (Photo: Seilov)

The Saiga Antelope (Saiga tartarica) is an antelope species that is listed today as "Critically Endangered."  It once formed massive herds and lived in a vast area of the Eurasian steppes. It is now only found in one part of Russia and three areas in Kazakhstan.  It is extinct in China and southwestern Mongolia. 

This antelope was hunted in very large numbers and its horn is popular in Chinese traditional medicine. It has been used as a substitute for rhinoceros horn. Hunting of rhinos and Saigas for the superstitious belief  that the horns of these animals have miraculous powers has caused a terrible decline in numbers of these mammals.

Why did the Saigas die? 

The Saiga is also prone to unexplained die-offs when large numbers of the animals drop dead. Many Saigas died like this in die-offs every year between 2010 and 2014. It is bad enough that humans have taken such a terrible toll on this species without mysterious mortalities killing them like this too.

Paris’s Shortcomings: We Need Conservation, Not Conversation says David de Rothschild

Deforestation (Photo: Public Domain)

An excellent article entitled Paris’s Shortcomings: We Need Conservation, Not Conversation by author and explorer David de Rothschild, has been published by National Geographic, in which he talks about the serious shortcomings of the recent Paris conference on Climate Change. He points out the truly alarming rate at which our forests are being destroyed and species of plant and animal are becoming extinct daily. Nowhere near enough is being done to halt the ongoing destruction and nowhere near enough binding agreements have been made. It has been a lot more talk but not a lot of action!

David says: "...most experts agree that we are losing upwards of 80,000 acres of tropical rain forest every day. Factor in a statistic that says conservatively we’re loosing anywhere between 135-200 plant, animal, and insect species every day, and you realize that between now and 2020, we stand to lose 1,460,000,000 acres of tropical forest and 273,750 species!"

Beekeeper (Photo: Public Domain)

I hear what he is saying loud and clear!  It really saddens me to know how many species we are losing all the time.  You do not have to know much about nature to see that once common birds and butterflies are vanishing, as are honeybees, which we are told is due to Colony Collapse Disorder.

In the UK, most butterfly species are in rapid decline, as are formerly common birds like the House Sparrow.

House Sparrow (Photo: Public Domain)

Every time I talk to my elderly father, who lives in Cardiff, he complains about how he no longer sees birds like blackbirds, starlings, great tits, robins, green finches, wrens and hedge sparrows, all of which used to be regular visitors to his back garden.  When I have visited him I have seen for myself that these birds have gone.  So too have the swifts. These birds used to nest on houses in the street my father lives in. In May you would hear and see them all the way along the road but no longer is this the case.

I have recently blogged about the shocking decline in hedgehogs in the UK. They are now down to less than one million.  These animals used to be a common sight in our gardens at night.

So I know what David de Rothschild is talking about is true. We are losing species daily and we cannot bring them back.  Extinction cannot be undone.  Extinct means gone for good!

I thoroughly recommend De Rothschild's book The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills to Stop Climate Change, and his Plastiki Across the Pacific on Plastic: An Adventure to Save Our Oceans.  This second book is about the voyage De Rothschild made across the ocean. He saw for himself that the fishes and marine life have vanished. Pollution by plastic and overfishing are destroying marine life daily and little is being done to stop this.  Too little too late is being done to stop the environmental destruction happening worldwide!

British hedgehog numbers in serious decline

The British Hedgehog is no longer common

Hedgehogs were once a very common animal in the UK, and in the 1950s there were an estimated 36 million living in our gardens, parks and countryside.  Very sadly this is no longer the case and The People's Trust for Endangered Species now believes there are fewer than one million left.  The alarming decline in hedgehog numbers has been reported on in The Guardian and by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

Hedgehog (Photo: Public Domain)

Threats to the hedgehog

Like so many endangered species of wildlife the hedgehog has many threats to its continued survival. Pesticides, such as slug bait,  can potentially harm hedgehogs that inadvertently eat poisoned slugs and snails. Even if the slug killer doesn't kill a hedgehog directly, the slugs and snails it does kill could have been food for the spiny animal. Habitat loss and degradation is another problem hedgehogs face. Many gardens are now paved over or kept so tidy that the number of insects and other invertebrates that hedgehogs feed on are drastically reduced in numbers. Hibernating hedgehogs can get burned to death if they are sleeping under a large pile of branches, twigs, leaves and other rubbish that someone has accumulated as a bonfire. 

Flooding caused by Climate Change is another threat to sleeping hedgehogs. Although the animals can swim to safety they are unlikely to be able to do so if water floods where they are resting or hibernating. The hedgehogs would be drowned in their sleep.

Hedgehogs are a very adaptable species that can live in a very great range of habitats and eat a wide variety of foods, including slugs, snails, worms, insects, centipedes, frogs, mice and snakes even. They can climb and swim. They wear a spiny suit-of-armour as a means of defence. They were once very common and widely distributed in the UK, however, like so many forms of British wildlife they have been unable to adapt fast enough to survive the sweeping changes humans have brought to the countryside.

Roadkill

A hedgehog after dark (Photo: Public Domain)

Hedgehogs are one of the main animals that become victims of roadkill. Hedgehogs are mainly nocturnal creatures and this means that drivers have less chance of seeing them in the road ahead, and in any case, the animals are very bad at getting out of the way, even if they do sense danger. 

The number of hedgehogs reported as roadkill has fallen drastically too, which suggests that their populations have seriously dwindled in numbers. The animals are not there to run the risk of being killed crossing a road to begin with!

Hedgehogs in popular culture

Hedgehogs have been featured in popular culture in Britain in literature, poetry and song. Beatrix Potter's Mrs Tiggy-Winkle is a character so many children have loved.  Folk-rock icons The Incredible String Band wrote a song entitled The Hedgehog's Song that was included on their album 5000 Spirits. 

The prickly but cute little animal is a firm favourite of very many people, so it is really saddening to know that the number of hedgehogs in the UK has dropped so dramatically. 

Fortunately, very many people are trying to do something to reverse the decline in hedgehog numbers and to save the little animals before it is too late.  Campaigns have been set up like this one.

It is hard to imagine a British countryside where hedgehogs are an extinct species, so let us do what we can to prevent this ever happening! 

Mamas from the Heart of the World - The Kogi

Who are the Kogi?

Perhaps you have never heard of the Kogi but if what these people say is true, then the future of this planet and our lives on it depends on their help. The Kogi are a mysterious tribe of people who live high on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain in Columbia, and who believe they are the guardians and caretakers for the whole world. 

 The Kogi leaders are priests known as Mamas. Mama means "enlightened one." They believe that the mountain they live on is the "Heart of the World," and this was why the landmark BBC documentary made by Alan Ereira in 1990 was entitled From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brothers' Warning.

Indigenous Koguis Shaman at Ciudad Perdida (Photo: Uhkabu)

The Kogi are unique in having been able to preserve their culture intact and dating back before the Spanish Conquest 500 years ago. They are a surviving Pre-Colombian culture but they are in turn descendants of the Tairona culture that flourished before this. The Tairona were an advanced civilisation that built cities and pathways of stone in the jungles. These structures were built to last and have survived in good condition long after their builders had gone.

 Statue of the Tayronas in Santa Marta, Colombia (Photo: Public Domain)

The Elder Brother

The term "Elder Brother" is used by the Kogi to refer to themselves, while the rest of the world and the western civilisation they call the "Younger Brother." In their belief system the Younger Brother was sent away long ago, leaving the Kogi Mamas to do their work in caring for the world from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Kogi boys can be selected from birth to be trained for nine years to become Mamas. They are kept in semi-darkness in a cave for this time and attended only by their mothers and Mamas who care for them and teach them about their history and beliefs and about Aluna. Aluna is the "Great Mother" from which all life and all creation sprang. Aluna is the life force behind nature. 

Kogi village huts (Photo: Thomas Dahlberg)

The Kogi Mamas have a complete understanding of the ecosystem and can interpret signs from nature with precision. Their mountain home is like a microcosm of the rest of the world because it really does contain microclimates and varying habitats such as can be found elsewhere on the planet. There are highlands and tundra, there are cloud forests and jungles, there are rivers and lakes, there are desert areas and lowlands, there are coastal regions with mangrove forests and reefs. 

It is possible to predict the health of the planet elsewhere by interpreting how it is on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This is why the Mamas had become very worried. They had seen that all was not well high on the mountain where snow and ice were not forming as they should, presumably due to Climate Change acerbated by how humans are treating the environment and wasting natural resources. No snow and ice high in the mountains and no clouds meant no water for streams and rivers to form from rainfall and meltwater, so no water for down below and without water nothing can live. 

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Photo: Public Domain)

The Kogi Mamas believe that because we are creating dams in the rivers, causing widespread deforestation, mining the land and mountains, polluting the seas, and otherwise destroying the environment and our home, that the world will come to an end, possibly as soon as in the next 50 years, unless we change course.

The Kogi tribe had kept itself away from the rest of the world until 1990 when the Mamas decided to break their silence in talking with Ereira and allowing him and his crew to film their secret homelands.

Kogi Warning

Sadly the Mamas have concluded that their message and warning to the Younger Brother was not heeded. This is why, 20 years later they decided to try another approach and have made a new film working with Ereira again. 

Aluna

Aluna is the title of the new movie made by the Kogi Mamas working again with Alan Ereira.  The Kogi are very frightened by the way the Younger Brother is continuing to destroy the natural world but know that we do not understand the forces we are unleashing.  They believe that unless we change course and listen to what they have to say then the world will end.

The Kogi could see that the Younger Brother failed to listen to their words and spoken warning in From The Heart of The World so in Aluna they are trying another way to communicate to us. They want to visually show us what they are talking about.

Julian Lennon

Julian Lennon in a Recent Picture (Photo: Julian Lennon)

Singer-songwriter, musician and photographer +Julian Lennon, who is a son of the former Beatle John Lennon, has been actively involved in supporting the Kogi and the campaign to get their message in Aluna widely heard. 

Julian Lennon's ALUNA Support Message

Julian says: "They have the answers. This is a warning that should not be ignored."

The Iberian Water Frog or Perez’s Frog is not the Iberian frog

Pelophylax perezi. Photo by David Perez

The Iberian water frog lives in Iberia (Spain and Portugal) as its name suggests but it is also known as Perez’s frog (Pelophylax perezi) and the Iberian green frog. Its scientific name used to be Rana perezi, and this is still used by many zoologists and naturalists. 

 It needs to be distinguished from the Iberian frog (Rana iberica), which also lives in Spain and Portugal but unlike the Iberian water frog which is very common and widely distributed, the Iberian frog is now very rare and limited by the number of locations it still survives in. 

The Iberian water frog’s key to success is that it isn’t fussy about its habitat and is found in ponds, lakes, reservoirs, rivers, marshes, and just about anywhere there is freshwater. It is often found breeding in garden ponds and also in the large water tank reservoirs made for farm irrigation.

It also lives in southern France and has been successfully introduced into Tenerife and the Canary Islands, the Azores and Madeira, as well as the Balearic Islands. It is also reported from a couple of sites in the UK where it is surviving.

The Iberian waterfrog is usually some shade of green as an overall colour but sometimes blueish specimens are found. These frogs often have a yellowish line down their backs.

Juvenile Iberian water frog. Photo by Steve Andrews

The Iberian water frog is a large species with females being bigger than the males.  The males croak loudly and congregate in large numbers in the breeding season. They can be territorial and will fight. 

The Iberian water frog is also known to resort to cannibalism at times and will eat its own tadpoles and smaller frogs.

The Iberian waterfrog, as its name suggests, spends most of its time in the water or very near it. It likes to bask in the sun at the edges of ponds or on lily-pads or anything else it can haul its body out onto.

 

Iberian Water Frogs. Quinta do Lago, Algarve, Portugal. 07/05/2102

  The Iberian Frog 

Rana iberica. Photo by Luis Fernández García

The Iberian frog favours mountainous regions and needs rivers, streams, ponds and lakes in these areas. It is also found in some lowland parts but is seriously declining in numbers.

  It looks similar to the Common frog (R.temporaria) and shares its habitat with this species in some places. It can grow to about 7 cm (2.8 in) in length but a more usual size is 5 cm (2.0 in).

The Iberian frog is having problems mainly due to habitat loss caused by deforestation and land development and is also threatened by introduced and naturalised predatory species including the American mink (Neovison vison). Climate Change is also said to be taking its toll on this species of frog and its official Conservation Status is “Near Threatened.”

SAVE THE FROGS 

Sadly it's not just the Iberian frog that is declining in numbers and in danger, because worldwide many species of frog, toad, salamander and newt are in serious trouble too. Water pollution, pesticides, herbicides, habitat destruction, the danger from traffic on roads, competition with other species, disease and Climate Change are all contributing to this, and many types are actually endangered to the point of facing extinction.

Dr Kerry Kriger has set up the first ever charity devoted to saving frogs and amphibians. Find out what you can do to help Save The Frogs here!