Norm Twigge, volunteer in the butterfly garden at Te Puna Quarry Park, Tauranga, said he had never seen butterfly numbers so low. Photo: RNZ / Libby Kirkby-McLeod
Internationally, 2024 has been a bad year for butterflies and local enthusiasts say it is not looking much better here.
Norm Twigge has been mad keen on insects since he was 11.
Now retired, he was a volunteer in the butterfly garden at Tauranga's Te Puna Quarry Park.
But he was worried about what he was seeing - or rather not seeing - this year.
"We used to see probably - throughout the season - five or six red admirals at this particular spot. These days we are lucky to see one," he said.
When RNZ visited the butterfly garden, there was a lone monarch butterfly among the flowers. Twigge said last year there would have been 20 to 25 of the butterflies flying around.
He had never seen numbers so low for the pollinating insect.
"We have had, in the past, bad years and good years, but certainly nothing like this. This is an exceptionally bad year," Twigge said.
And he had not been the only one to notice.
Caterpillar eggs are hatched, grown, and then allowed to pupa in the butterfly house before being released as butterflies. However, the numbers are down up to 80 percent this year. Photo: RNZ / Libby Kirkby-McLeod
In the UK, a national "butterfly emergency" had been declared, after this year's Big Butterfly Count returned the lowest ever sightings since records began.
In North America, a study had suggested that monarchs were dying off by as much as 80 percent during their autumn migration south to Mexico.
However, entomologist Ruud Kleinpaste said the global picture was hard to pin down.
"The trouble is it's very scattered - it is here, there, and everywhere. And there is always the caveat that we need to have a little bit more data before we can actually make any sense out of this."
But he said butterflies, like many other animals, were under pressure.
"By getting so many people, so many houses, so many new things happening on the planet that reduce the amount of habitat, some species will indeed disappear, or become fewer in numbers," Kleinpaste said.
Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust's Jacqui Knight agreed.
The butterfly garden at Te Puna Quarry Park, Tauranga. Photo: RNZ / Libby Kirkby-McLeod
"I imagine that things are not good anywhere in the world for our butterflies and moths and they are useful indicators of the health of our environment," she said.
Knight said one of the biggest problems in New Zealand is that most people did not even know we had native butterflies.
"We have some amazing butterflies and moths in New Zealand, there's about 2000 species of moths, and people just don't even know that they exist. So how can you encourage people to look after them, and plant for them, if they don't even know they are out there?"
All three agreed that planting, allowing areas to go a bit wild, and having lots of flowers would help.
Kleinpaste pointed to the successful reintroduction of the Boulder Butterfly into special butterfly gardens around Christchurch.
Back at Te Puna's butterfly habitat, young Sage and her mum had come to the gardens specifically because she loved butterflies.
They had planted swan plants at home for monarch butterflies, and Sage enjoyed watched the butterflies on flowers.
Hopefully with a bit of action and attention on our smallest critters, Sage would be able to enjoy butterflies for years to come.
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