Green Options » butterfly

Conservationists Hopeful Extinct Butterfly Back in Britain

Marika Collins — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:56:52 +0000

British conservationists are ecstatic over what they hope is the return of the Large Tortoiseshell butterfly, thought to be extinct in Britain. The butterfly, once common, dwindled in numbers in the early twentieth century to the point where it disappeared entirely.

Some experts fear that sightings of the Large Tortoiseshell may in fact be of migrants from mainland Europe (where the butterfly is still common), or of escaped specimens from breeders. Conservationists, however, are hopeful that the butterfly is breeding again in England.

Asian Butterfly Discovered to Have Reached Hawaii–How Remains Mystery

Levi Novey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:02:57 +0000

A butterfly species that lives in Southeast Asia and some parts of Africa has been discovered on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

If the butterfly arrived by migrating or via human transportation remains unknown.

The discovery was made by a man named Jim Snyder, who has been photographing and observing butterfly species since his childhood. When walking one day in March near the Waikiki library he noticed a unique set of butterflies that had different eye and wing colors compared to other species living in Hawaii. He also observed that they flew low to the ground– another unusual trait for the locality. There were only sixteen other species known to live on Hawaii’s islands prior to Snyder’s find.

The Nature Conservancy: Can Dogs Help Find and Save Endangered Species?

Jonathon — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:46:34 +0000

Rogue prefers his steak medium-well. But when it comes to sniffing out a rare plant, this dog performs work that’s very well done, indeed.

The 4-year-old Belgian sheepdog is part of a Nature Conservancy collaborative project to test the efficacy of using dogs to sniff out the threatened Kincaid’s lupine. The plant is host to the endangered Fender’s blue butterfly, found only in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Watch a video of Rogue in action!

Using detector dogs for such inventory work is new territory: No one’s tried it before.

But since dogs use their remarkable sense of smell to uncover illegal drugs or locate missing persons, why not use them to help find and protect endangered plants and animals?

Rogue’s reward for finding the correct plant? That steak. (Or sometimes mackerel.)