2023 has officially been declared to have had the lowest number of butterflies ever since the start of the national butterfly counting network. Our country has lost over half of our butterflies since 1992.
Some of the 'highlights' from the articles along with the official report from the Dutch Butterfly Conservation:
- 9 to 13 species (depending on the article) are named to have had their lowest numbers ever recorded. This consists not only of likely suspects, such as extremely rare and fragile species (Dusky Large Blue) or species that have been on the decline for a long while (Rock Grayling), but also (formerly) extremely abundant and widespread species like Wall Brown, Large White, Small Tortoiseshell and Green-veined White.
- Grasland and heathland butterflies have been among the hardest hit species. Again in this group both extremely rare species (Tree Grayling) and highly abundant and opportunistic species are decreasing. Species like Common Blue, Essex Skipper and Large Skipper are doing very poorly, likely because of land use intensification.
- A handful of species have done well, including Brimstone and our endemic batavia subspecies of Large Copper. The latter's succes is probably due to intensive conservation efforts. Woodland butterflies like Purple Emperor and Speckled Wood as a group are doing reasonably well: warmer, older and more diverse forests (a focal point for Dutch nature conservation) are among the contributing factors.
- September 2023 was better than average for butterflies (in contrast to the other months), but the trend was almost solely due to the succes of a handful of very common widespread species like European Peacock and Small White, having profited from the reasonably wet summer.
- Weather conditions in late 2022 and early 2023 were not good for butterflies. However, according to the Dutch Butterfly Conservation, this cannot fully explain the extremely low butterfly numbers of 2023, as the numbers fit the trend of the last decades. Climate change and especially land use intensification - leading to the increase of pesticide use, habitat fragmentation, highly intensive mowing regimes, and decrease in natural habitats - are likely to blame for the butterfly decrease. Despite how terrible 2023 was, the Butterfly Conservation says there's "no guarantee" 2024 will be any better.
tl:dr: The Netherlands is losing her butterflies at an alarming rate and there's no reason to assume this is going to change anytime soon.
Corresponding articles (in Dutch):
De Vlinderstichting | Vlinderjaar 2023: weer minder vlinders
Populaties dagvlinders meer dan gehalveerd sinds 1992
Some of the 'highlights' from the articles along with the official report from the Dutch Butterfly Conservation:
- 9 to 13 species (depending on the article) are named to have had their lowest numbers ever recorded. This consists not only of likely suspects, such as extremely rare and fragile species (Dusky Large Blue) or species that have been on the decline for a long while (Rock Grayling), but also (formerly) extremely abundant and widespread species like Wall Brown, Large White, Small Tortoiseshell and Green-veined White.
- Grasland and heathland butterflies have been among the hardest hit species. Again in this group both extremely rare species (Tree Grayling) and highly abundant and opportunistic species are decreasing. Species like Common Blue, Essex Skipper and Large Skipper are doing very poorly, likely because of land use intensification.
- A handful of species have done well, including Brimstone and our endemic batavia subspecies of Large Copper. The latter's succes is probably due to intensive conservation efforts. Woodland butterflies like Purple Emperor and Speckled Wood as a group are doing reasonably well: warmer, older and more diverse forests (a focal point for Dutch nature conservation) are among the contributing factors.
- September 2023 was better than average for butterflies (in contrast to the other months), but the trend was almost solely due to the succes of a handful of very common widespread species like European Peacock and Small White, having profited from the reasonably wet summer.
- Weather conditions in late 2022 and early 2023 were not good for butterflies. However, according to the Dutch Butterfly Conservation, this cannot fully explain the extremely low butterfly numbers of 2023, as the numbers fit the trend of the last decades. Climate change and especially land use intensification - leading to the increase of pesticide use, habitat fragmentation, highly intensive mowing regimes, and decrease in natural habitats - are likely to blame for the butterfly decrease. Despite how terrible 2023 was, the Butterfly Conservation says there's "no guarantee" 2024 will be any better.
tl:dr: The Netherlands is losing her butterflies at an alarming rate and there's no reason to assume this is going to change anytime soon.
Corresponding articles (in Dutch):
De Vlinderstichting | Vlinderjaar 2023: weer minder vlinders
Populaties dagvlinders meer dan gehalveerd sinds 1992