Half of England’s butterflies are endangered or near extinction

By AFP

London, England | 05/25/2022 – 06:50

Half of Britain’s butterflies are at or near extinction, an organization for the protection of these insects suffering the effects of climate change and pollution warned on Wednesday.

Half of Britain’s butterflies are at or near extinction, an organization for the protection of these insects suffering the effects of climate change and pollution warned on Wednesday.

Four of the 62 species evaluated are regionally extinct, the NGO Butterfly Conservation condemns.

Of the remaining 58, 24 are listed as Critically Endangered, listed as Endangered or Likely Endangered in the UK and another five species are listed as Near Threatened.

The situation has worsened since the last evaluation was carried out in 2011, with another five species in danger of extinction, representing an increase of 26%.

“It is surprising that half of the remaining butterfly species in the UK are listed as threatened or near threatened on the new red list,” said Richard Fox, chief scientist at Butterfly Conservation.

“Even before this reassessment, the British butterfly was among the most endangered in Europe,” he stressed.

The causes of this degradation include nitrogen pollution from agriculture and climate change.

On the plus side, some of Britain’s most endangered species, such as the polka dot pangolin (Phengaris arion), which became extinct in the country in 1979 but were reintroduced, and the Middle Eastern pearlescent (Fabriciana adippe), they are no longer threatened with extinction thanks to the implementation of the program. conservation.

Roderick Gilbert

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