- Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse
- Feminist author warns of abortion disaster if Trump wins US election
- US city of Flint still reeling from water crisis, 10 years on
- Arsenal's mean defence faces acid test to shut out Man City again
- Late surge lifts Thailand's Jeeno to LPGA Queen City lead
- DeChambeau says PGA's Ryder Cup decision 'just the start'
- Alcaraz defeated on Laver Cup debut
- Postecoglou embraces 'struggle' to make Spurs a success
- Nice hand 'ashamed' Saint-Etienne 8-0 Ligue 1 mauling
- Boeing CEO says ending strike 'a top priority'
- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
- Poland charges Russian over attack on Navalny ally: prosecutors
- Man City have rest 'advantage' in Arsenal showdown: Guardiola
- Maresca has 'no doubt' in Jackson as Chelsea's number nine
- EU chief announces 35 bn euro loan plan for Ukraine before winter
- From TikTok to Hollywood, the irresistible rise of Italy's Khaby Lame
Wildlife lovers urged to join UK's annual butterfly count
Wildlife enthusiasts across Britain are being encouraged to log sightings of butterflies and some moths, as the world's largest annual survey of the increasingly endangered pollinating insects returns.
The UK-wide "Big Butterfly Count" -- which this year runs from July 14 to August 6 -- helps conservationists assess the health of the country's natural environment, amid mounting evidence it is increasingly imperilled.
Volunteers download a chart helping them to identify different butterfly species and then record their sightings in gardens, parks and elsewhere using a smartphone app and other online tools.
It comes as experts warn the often brightly coloured winged insects are in rapid decline in Britain as they fail to cope with unprecedented environmental change.
"It's a pretty worrying picture," Richard Fox, head of science at the Butterfly Conservation charity, which runs the nationwide citizen-led survey, told AFP at Orley Common, a vast park in Devon, southwest England.
"The major causes of the decline are what we humans have done to the landscape in the UK over the past 50, 60, 70 years," he added from the site, which is seeing fewer butterflies despite offering an ideal habitat for them.
A report published this year that Fox co-authored, based on 23 million items of data, revealed that four in every five UK butterfly species have decreased since the 1970s.
Half of the country's 58 species are listed as threatened, according to a conservation "red list".
- 'Citizen scientists' -
The UK, one of the world's most nature-depleted countries, has lost almost half of its biodiversity over recent decades, according to a 2021 UK parliament report.
Agriculture, and its use of fertilisers and pesticides, alongside changes to landscapes including the removal of hedge rows to maximise space for growing crops, is partly blamed.
Counting butterflies, which are among the most monitored insects globally, has helped track the grim trend.
Volunteers have been contributing to the effort since the 1970s but recording is more popular than ever, in part thanks to evolving technology.
The Big Butterfly Count launched in 2010 and claims to have become the world's biggest such survey.
Over 64,000 "citizen scientists" participated last year, submitting 96,257 counts of butterflies and day-flying moths from across Britain.
Butterfly Conservation and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology have developed an iRecord Butterflies app to help identify and geo-locate different butterfly species sightings.
It has logged nearly one million submissions since launching in 2014.
Butterflies help identify the health of an ecosystem because they react quickly to environmental changes and are seen as an early warning system for other wildlife losses, conservationists note.
"One of the great things about butterflies and of this fantastic data that we have about butterflies is that they act as indicators about all the other groups," Fox explained.
"So we know a bit about how our bees are doing, we know a little about how bugs, and beetles, and flies, and wasps, and other important insects are doing."
- 'We'll starve' -
Amy Walkden, Butterfly Conservation's branch secretary in Devon, is one of many enthusiasts monitoring the insects year-round with the help of her eight-year-old daughter, Robin.
"Having a yearly record of what is around and what is not around I think is really good scientific data to indicate changes such as global warming, habitat destruction," she said.
Her daughter Robin appears equally aware of their value.
"If we don't have any butterflies and all the buzzy things, then the things that eat butterflies won't have any food," she noted.
"The food chain is basically what we eat and if there is none of them we'll starve and we won't really be able to survive, will we?"
Fox hopes that the latest annual count will help prompt policy makers to take more action, although he concedes the scale of the task is "enormous".
The UK government has said it wants to reverse biodiversity loss and climate change, partly by planting tens of millions of trees in the next three years.
Fox called the plan "fantastic" but said other areas such as low intensity agri-environment schemes are also needed, "so that the public money paid to farmers will benefit the environment and support biodiversity".
"There's a lot more we can do there to make sure that the margins around fields are being managed in a way to turn around the fortunes of our more common and widespread butterflies," he added.
G.Machado--PC