How East Yorkshire residents can take part in the Big Butterfly Count
Butterfly Conservation has launched a nationwide rescue mission for the UK’s butterflies and need East Yorkshire residents to get involved.
The Wildlife column with Dr Richard Fox, head of science at Butterfly Conservation
Last summer, Yorkshire’s butterflies sent an urgent SOS through Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, with citizen scientists in Yorkshire spotting only 43,223 butterflies and day-flying moths during the three-week period.
These results were echoed up and down the UK, with the wildlife charity declaring a nationwide butterfly emergency after the marked and deeply concerning decline in butterfly numbers, which were the lowest in the Big Butterfly Count’s history.
The 2024 figures follow a pattern of long-term decline as butterflies struggle against a backdrop of habitat degradation, climate breakdown and pesticide use.
That’s why this year, Butterfly Conservation is not just launching a citizen science survey – they are launching a nationwide rescue mission and need the people of Yorkshire to get involved.
No lab coats. No science degrees. Just 15 minutes of your time. The mission?
Spend 15 minutes in any outdoor space and count the butterflies and day-flying moths you see and submit your sightings to help build our interactive map.
That’s it. One small action that contributes to a much bigger effort to help save butterfly species and the ecosystems they support.
The count runs until Sunday, August 10.
This is a chance to turn curiosity into conservation and make a real contribution to protecting butterflies in the UK for generations to come. Butterflies are beautiful, yes – but they’re also incredibly important bioindicators. This means that as they continue to disappear, as they have over recent decades, it indicates something is going seriously wrong in our natural world. We need to heed that warning and take action before it’s too late.
If we lose butterflies, we lose more than beauty – we lose balance in our ecosystems and that will have serious repercussions for wildlife in the UK.
Taking part in the Big Butterfly Count only takes 15 minutes and it’s something everybody in Yorkshire can do. If you do one thing for nature this year, get out for the count this summer! – every count really does make a difference.
Visit www.bigbutterflycount.org to find out more about the count.