Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation has today released data about the number of butterflies counted in this year’s Big Butterfly Count (17^th July – 9^th August 2020). Worryingly this summer’s Count has seen a reduction in the average number of butterflies logged per count of -34% in comparison with 2019 and the lowest average number of butterflies logged overall since the event began eleven years ago. In all, during this year’s Big Butterfly Count, over 1.4 million butterflies were counted across the UK.Dr Zoë Randle, Senior Surveys Officerat Butterfly Conservation said:“Unfortunately, this summer has not seen an abundance of butterflies, across the UK. We do see peaks and troughs of butterfly numbers each year (last year for example we saw a huge influx of migrant Painted Lady butterflies), so the data from the Big Butterfly Count is an important snapshot which, along with our other monitoring schemes, helps our understanding of the rates of decline of butterflies and moths”.She went on to say:“Coming so shortly after the recent WWF and UN reports on the global biodiversity crisis these 2020 results illustrate the perilous state of wildlife in the UK. However, the fact that so many people take part in this exciting citizen science initiative is encouraging and makes a huge difference to our understanding of how the natural world is responding to the crisis it is in. Now we need to see initiatives both here and across the world to put nature on a path to recovery”.“The fall in butterfly numbers this summer may be due to a number of factors. An unusually warm spring led many species to emerge earlier than usual. So we may have only caught the tail-end of the flight period for many species during this year’s Big Butterfly Count. It’s important to look at butterfly trends over longer periods, so our scientists will be using these results alongside our other datasets to get a clearer understanding of what is happening."
Encouragingly,2020 also saw the highest number of butterfly sightings ever submitted by the general public with 111,628 participantssubmitting a record-breaking 145,249 counts this year, an increase of 25% on 2019.It seems that, in a very dark and challenging year, the opportunity for getting out into nature and helping as citizen scientists was very welcome to people who were able to participate in the Count this year. Butterfly Conservation is thrilled the event was enjoyed by so many people.While the decline of ecosystems across the world is a cause for great concern, it’s also possible to see the power of joint positive action in this year’s Big Butterfly Count. As more and more people take an interest in nature and submit their sightings Butterfly Conservationcan continue its research and work to protect butterflies, moths and the environment through closer understanding of the issues they face and finding the solutions to help.Butterflies and moths are incredibly valuable indicators of the health of our environment. Their declines show not only the effects of human behaviour on the world around usbut also the changing patterns of our weather. As well as being important and beautiful creatures in themselves, they play key roles inthe ecosystems of birds, mammals, invertebrates and plants as food, population controllers and pollinators. Their conservation is vitally important.Julie Williams CEO of Butterfly Conservation says: “A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the Big Butterfly Count this year. This important data is so valuable to our ongoing and vital research helping us to understand what is happening to our butterflies and moths so we can take focused action to protect these fantastic insects and conserve them for future generations.”SPECIES RESULTS UK – BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT 2020

Big Butterfly Count 2020 UK		Abundance	Ave per count	%Change from 2019
1	Large White	268,925	2.03	+44%
2	Small White	260,434	1.97	+7%
3	Gatekeeper	188,866	1.43	-14%
4	Peacock	163,351	1.23	-42%
5	Meadow Brown	146,273	1.1	-2%
6	Red Admiral	82,534	0.62	-33%
7	Small Tortoiseshell	56,105	0.42	-41%
8	Common Blue	34,762	0.26	+9%
9	Ringlet	34,577	0.26	-18%
10	Comma	30,856	0.23	-29%
11	Green-veined White	30,127	0.23	-33%
12	Speckled Wood	29,971	0.23	-33%
13	Holly Blue	23,519	0.18	+48%
14	Small Copper	20,423	0.15	+40%
15	Brimstone	11,771	0.09	-1%
16	Six-spot Burnet	11,073	0.08	-36%
17	Marbled White	9,054	0.07	-38%
18	Painted Lady	8,368	0.06	-99%
19	Silver Y	2,360	0.02	-70%
	Total	1,413,349	10.66	-34%