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FILE - This March 23, 2016 file photo shows a Blue Morpho
butterfly landing on a plant during a photo call for hundreds of
tropical butterflies being released, to launch the Natural History
Museum’s Sensational Butterflies exhibition in London. During the summer
of 2018 Britain is holding a Big Butterfly Count to help experts assess
the state of the wildlife environment. The count is being backed by
celebrities, including naturalist David Attenborough, and depends on
people devoting 15 minutes to counting butterfly species. (AP
Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)
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Associated Press
LONDON
What to do during Britain’s hottest summer in years? Why, count butterflies, of course.
Britain is holding a Big Butterfly Count to help experts assess the state of the wildlife environment. The count is being backed by celebrities, including naturalist David Attenborough, and depends on people devoting 15 minutes to counting butterfly species.
More than 60,000 volunteers took part in the Butterfly Conservation survey last year. The annual survey began in 2010 and the group says it’s become the largest butterfly monitoring project in the world.
The group says butterflies react very quickly to environmental changes, making them excellent indicators of biodiversity. It says a decline in butterflies is “an early warning” of other wildlife losses.
The count, which also helps to identify threatened species, goes until Aug. 12.
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FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2017, file photo, John Miano of
Destin, Fla., holds a monarch butterfly on his fingertip as he waits for
the newly tagged insect to take flight during the Panhandle Butterfly
House’s Monarch Madness festival in Navarre, Fla. The Trump
administration is proposing changes to the government’s endangered
species program that wildlife advocates say could make it harder to
protect monarchs. (Devon Ravine/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP,
File)
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