Since last August, biologists and park rangers have been monitoring butterfly numbers in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a park known for its abundant flora and fauna.
CUYABENO: Biologists in the Ecuadorian Amazon are holding their breath as they distribute a smelly delicacy to attract butterflies, a growing pollinator threatened by climate change. One team hung 32 traps made of green netting, each baited with rotting fish and fermented bananas. They are meant to blend in with the forest canopy. They do not have a strong smell.
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Since last August, biologists and park rangers have been monitoring butterfly numbers in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a park known for its abundant flora and fauna.
They capture and document colorful insects, releasing many with identifying marks on their wings. Some of them, possibly from previously unknown species, were kept for further study.
However, the results of the team’s work were deeply disappointing.
Butterflies are “bioindicators” whose prosperity provides a measure of the health of their surrounding ecosystem, and their numbers are declining, biologist María Fernanda Checa told AFP.
While species numbers have declined by no more than 10 percent, she says, “the decline in absolute butterfly numbers has been significant… perhaps 40/50 percent.”
“It’s a matter of great concern to us.”
Bioindicators
Under the Lead by expedition leader Elisa Levy, a team checks the nets for captured butterflies.
They delicately grasp insects with their small abdomens and manipulate their legs and wings with pincers.
Some are bright red and blue, while others resemble zebra stripes. Some are transparent like glass.
About three-quarters of the crops that produce fruit or seeds for human consumption depend on pollinators, which provide a free service worth billions of dollars.
The UN has warned that 40 percent of invertebrate pollinators — especially bees and butterflies — are at risk of global extinction, posing some risks to humanity.
Butterflies, throughout their short lifespans from egg to caterpillar to reproductive adult, are “very sensitive to even small changes in the environment,” Cheka said.
Levy explained that tropical plants — unlike regions with distinct seasons — are not acclimated to extreme climate variations.
If they do not adapt to the rapidly changing climate, these plants will be lost along with the butterfly larvae that feed on them.
Ecuador, a relatively small but highly biodiverse, hosts nearly 4,000 butterfly species — nearly as many as its neighbors Peru and Colombia.
Checa stated that in locations like Yasuni National Park, which is adjacent to Cuyabeno, the rate at which new species are discovered is slower than the rate at which species go extinct.