A Fantastic Year For The Painted Lady!

A record-breaking 113,500 people contributed to this year’s Big Butterfly Count, with almost 1.6 million butterflies spotted over the three week period in peak British summertime.

The Big Butterfly Count, which was first launched in 2010, is the world’s biggest butterfly survey, providing valuable insight into the UK’s butterfly numbers and this year’s count was no exception!

The beautifully striking painted lady butterfly displayed the highest number of sightings in Britain in over a decade, with nearly half a million counts in British parks and gardens over the course of the survey – a fantastic result!

There was also a huge increase in numbers for five of the common species – a combined total of 1.1 million butterflies were spotted, compared with the 660,000 of last year.

The Big Butterfly Count is a very important survey, identifying the decline in certain species which can help us plan how to protect butterflies from extinction, and understand the effect that climate change can have on our precious wildlife!

Click here to learn more about the Big Butterfly Count and get involved in next year’s survey.