The Rural Voice, 1994-02, Page 30Thinking of
butterflies
and
summer
In the sunny south the
butterflies are resting
up for their trip north.
But will they find a
welcoming
environment when they
return?
By Carl L. Bedal
There's no better time than
February to remember
summer and its buuerflies,
those flying flowers which
flit about our gardens in what
seems utter freedom.
The Monarch, our best known
butterfly, is still wintering in Mexico
before starting its flight north for the
summer. Here in Ontario, a few
select butterflies are housed in warm
comfort at the Metro Toronto Zoo
and the Canadian Museum of Nature
in Ottawa.
In Florida, thousands of colorful
butterflies are encamped outdoors in
Butterfly World, near Ft. Lauderdale.
I vividly remember my visit there last
month, a visit which left me with the
impression that there's nothing better
for the soul than a winter rendezvous
with butterflies.
"It's time to wake up," said the
park guide as she gently shook the
fragrant plants which had been
overnight hosts to sleeping
butterfl ies.
It was only 9 a.m., an early hour
for butterflies, especially on a winter
day in Florida, but the gates to
Butterfly World, an outdoor museum
26 THE RURAL VOICE
Photo: Female Monarch Butterfly in Mexico by Barry Peers, Canadian Museum of Nature.
devoted exclusively to butterflies,
had opened to visitors. The guide
simply wanted more action from her
charges because the many varieties of
butterflies in the park's three aviaries
were not yet active.
Roused by the guide's wake-up
call — or was it the music of Mozart
gently playing in the background? —
butterflies of every hue took off and
fluttered around inside screened -in
buildings landscaped with waterfalls
and semi -tropical plants, the latter
carefully selected to attract
butterflies.
It was easy to imagine heaven
under these conditions of seeming
contentment, surrounded by colour,
exposed to fragrance, warmed by
sunlight, and for the butterflies, only
a short flight to sweet nectar.
Chuang Tzu, a 4th Century B.C.
Chinese philosopher, summed up the
feeling when he wrote, "I do not
know whether I was then a man
dreaming I was a butterfly or whether
I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a
man."
Unfortunately, butterfly heaven
may be coming to an end.
Butterfly populations, like human
populations, are sensitive to their
environment. Consequently, changes
in the environment, even small ones,
can affect butterfly survival. The
corollary, of course, is that the size of
the butterfly population reveals the
condition of our surroundings.
Already, some species like the
Xerces (a blue butterfly after which
the Xerces Society, a group of
butterfly devotees, was named) are
extinct and two species in Ontario,
the Karner Blue and the Frosted
Elfin, are endangered.
arry Peers, biologist at the
Canadian Museum of Nature
in Ottawa, expresses concern
about the Monarch
population in Ontario. The
reports he has received indicate that
the monarch population has
decreased significantly in the last two
years. While he thinks the cool, wet
summer of 1992 and the flooding in
the mid -West in 1993 may have
played a role in reducing this
population, Peers considers our
modifications of the environment a
more likely contributor to this sudden
decline in its numbers.
While the decrease in numbers
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