South Africa’s third butterfly census will take place this week, and no, it is (surprisingly) not an initiative by hipster hippies. According to the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA), butterflies are a good indicator of the health of the ecosystem, and counting them can provide important information which can be related to land use practices, and even climate change.

Dr Silvia Mecenero, the project coordinator, explains:

“With about 800 butterfly taxa in our country, of which about 10% are threatened with extinction, monitoring our butterflies provides important insights into the conservation of our flying jewels.”

This is a joint project of the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA), Animal Demography Unit (University of Cape Town), the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa (LepSoc) and the SA National Biodiversity Institute.

So let’s see how we’re doing on that whole “not murdering our environment” thing.

[Source: News24]