Thread by @savebutterflies

This year’s #BigButterflyCount results are in and it’s not good news for nature 📰🦋

Overall, participants spotted just 7 butterflies on average per 15-minute Count, a reduction of almost 50% on last year’s average of 12, and the lowest in the 14-year history of the Count. 🧵

It was the worst summer in the Count’s history for Common Blue, Holly Blue, Green-veined White, Small White, Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady and Scotch Argus. And the majority of species (81%) showed declines in the number seen this year compared with 2023.

📷: Savannah Jones

In total, just over 935,000 butterflies and day-flying moths were recorded across the UK from 12 July - 4 August, down almost 600,000, equivalent to more than a third of 2023's total, and 9,000 Counts were logged as seeing zero butterflies.

But this isn’t just one bad year.

With 80% of butterflies having declined since the 1970s and a third of moth numbers having fallen in that same period, the time has come to tell the new Government that enough is enough. 📢

Add your name to our open letter to @SteveReedMP today 👉 butterfly-conservation.org/emergency

“Butterflies are a key indicator species; when they are in trouble we know that the wider environment is in trouble too. Nature is sounding the alarm call." - @RichardFoxBC, Head of Science at Butterfly Conservation

The full #BigButterflyCount results can be viewed here 👉 butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/…