News

AZA Conference to Feature Butterfly Conservation Session

This year�s AZA National Conference (Sept. 14 - 18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) will feature a session entitled, �Creating a Nexus for Recovery: AZA-FWS Alliances for Butterfly Conservation.� The session will be moderated by Dr. David Shepherdson, Conservation Program Scientist at the Oregon Zoo.

Speakers and topics include:

Stephanie Sanchez, Program Coordinator, BFCI - �The Butterfly Conservation Initiative: Developing Partnerships for Cooperative Conservation.�

Dr. Jaret Daniels, Assistant Director for Research, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity � �Paving the road to recovery in south Florida: A cooperative conservation model for imperiled butterflies.�

Dr. David Shepherdson, Conservation Program Scientist, Oregon Zoo � �Saving Pacific Northwest butterflies: The role of zoo alliances, agency partnerships and NGO support.�

Dr. Peter Tolson, Director of Conservation and Research, The Toledo Zoo � �The Mitchell�s Satyr Working Group: creation of a federal- state- AZA nexus for recovery of an endangered wetland butterfly.�

The session, jointly sponsored by the AZA Field Conservation Committee and BFCI, highlights cooperative butterfly conservation programs for endangered and threatened North American butterflies that resulted from the historic joint FWS/AZA Memorandum of Understanding for endangered species recovery signed in 2001. The goals of the session are to 1: Highlight successful collaborative field conservation efforts that include the AZA institutions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state wildlife agencies, and NGOs such as The Nature Conservancy; 2: Encourage formation of regional conservation partnerships within the USA as espoused by the AZA Field Conservation Committee; and 3: Provide examples of proven templates that can be emulated by AZA institutions that wish to institute a cooperative field conservation program with the FWS. In this session, illustrated connections to institutions and organizations other than the FWS are quite diverse and include universities (e.g. University of Florida and Michigan State University, State Agencies (e.g. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)and NGOs (e.g. The Nature Conservancy, SW Michigan Land Conservancy, and Everglades National Park). Butterfly conservation programs provide a unique opportunity for AZA members to participate in field conservation in a relatively inexpensive, yet meaningful way, promoting collaborative efforts that can expand into other projects that truly will aid in welding AZA member facilities into "North America's largest conservation movement".

Restoration at the Wilds

Dr. Nicole Cavender
The Wilds, Director of Restoration Ecology

Pollinators in Peril

Pollinators such as butterflies, moths, bees and others are essential to our environment. The ecological service they provide is important for the reproduction of nearly 75 percent of the world�s flowering plants. More recently, pollinator conservation has become a prominent topic on many fronts. In 2006, The National Academy of Science released the report, Status of Pollinators in North America, and called attention to the serious decline in both managed and wild pollinator populations. Since then, the Pollinator Protection Act was introduced to congress in 2007 by Senator Boxer and addresses both the problems with honey bees and native pollinators of North America including their health, ecology, and loss of habitat. Pollinator declines around the world are due to many factors, but the loss of quality habitat continues to be one of the main threats to healthy populations.

Encompassing almost 10,000 acres, the vast land base at the Wilds along with its key personnel, partnerships, expertise and outreach potential presents a unique opportunity for the Wilds to play a key part in pollinator conservation both on the ground and through scientific endeavor.

Creating Habitat

For the last several years, the Wilds has been working on transforming this once coal-mined landscape into a rich habitat capable of supporting a diversity of Ohio native pollinators. The original concept was developed in partnership with BFCI and Ohio Zoos in 2002 and focused primarily on native butterfly populations, but it has more recently evolved to also include other pollinators such as native bees. Essentially, the Wilds is replacing large areas of non-native grasses with a diversity of native plant species that will provide nectar, host plant larval food for native butterflies, and pollen and nest sites for bees. The concept for the creation of this refuge is simple �if you build it (the habitat) they will come�. To date over 35-acres of native meadow have been planted, 10 acres of trees have been established contiguous to 30-acres of native woodlands, and an acre of wetland has been enhanced. The habitat will continue to expand with the hope of reaching up to 200 acres in the future.

Integrating Science

As the habitat expands and improves, the Wilds is conducting concurrent population monitoring. Five years of butterfly monitoring, following guidelines given by The Ohio Lepidopterist Society, have been carried out in the habitat. Results to date have shown a 257% increase in total numbers of butterflies since the initiation of the project along with a 47% increase in species richness. These results are exciting and show tremendous promise on how habitat improvements, even on highly altered landscapes, can increase local butterfly populations in a relatively short period of time. Furthermore, research has also begun in partnership with Dr. Karen Goodell from Ohio State University to investigate the ecological factors influencing the assembly of pollinator communities on highly altered lands following restoration of high quality pollinator habitat. Karen�s efforts aim to develop techniques for improving pollinator habitat to maximize pollinator diversity and abundance communities in the local and surrounding regions.

Native Plant and Butterfly Propagation

The Wilds is now in the beginning phases of creating a unique, on-site Native Plant Propagation Facility that will provide both seed and mature transplants in order to continue these large-scale ecological restoration projects. A pollinator rearing area is also planned to augment existing insect populations, especially butterflies, as well as serve as an additional source of pollinators to further support the critical plant-pollinator relationship. We hope to begin building this year. Stay tuned�

The Wilds, short for the International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals, cares for dozens of endangered species from around the world. They partner with BFCI member Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

To learn more about habitat restoration and other conservation efforts at the Wilds, please visit www.thewilds.org.

BFCI Moves to University of Florida!

The office of BFCI completed its move from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in Baltimore to the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida in May, 2007.

BFCI now operates as a program of the Florida Biodiversity Foundation Inc. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization incorporated in the State of Florida. Its mission is to study, preserve, conserve and restore Lepidoptera, biodiversity and the environment, and includes the support of research, educational exhibits and literature appropriate to these topics. It works closely with the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida.

The McGuire Center is a part of the Florida Museum of Natural History, Florida�s official natural history museum. Dedicated to understanding, preserving and interpreting biological diversity and cultural heritage, the Florida Museum is a world-class institution, ranking among the five largest natural history museums in the U.S. Its collections, more than 26 million specimens and artifacts, are some of the most comprehensive and widely utilized in the world.

Like the Florida Museum, the McGuire Center serves both research and public education functions. Opened in July 2004, the McGuire Center itself houses one of the largest collections of Lepidoptera in the world.

The Center includes 50,000-square-feet of collection, office and exhibit space. The Butterfly Rainforest is a 6,400-square-foot, 65-foot tall, steel and screen exhibit open year-round. The 460 species of plants housed amongst the curves of the rainforest trail and five waterfalls support 1,500 � 2,000 living butterflies with about 60 different species displayed at any one time.

Research space includes laboratories focusing on molecular genetics, scanning electron microscopy, image analysis and optical microscopy, conservation and captive propagation of endangered species, physiology, morphology and specimen preparation.

Current research projects underway at the Center include: Conservation of the Homerus Swallowtail, Conservation of the Miami Blue, Conservation of the Schaus Swallowtail, St. Augustine Hairstreak and Coastal Development, and Captive Propagation and Life Histories of Satyrids.

As its first host activity, McGuire Center staff and graduate students spent two days with staff from the BFCI member institution: Chicago Academy of Sciences/Notebaert Nature Museum sharing and comparing captive breeding and butterfly conservatory operation techniques, protocols and methodologies. BFCI wants to encourage and hopefully facilitate similar exchanges between BFCI�s partner, member and contributing organizations.

The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity is proud to provide a permanent home for BFCI and effective collaboration in achieving the joint objectives of the conservation of threatened, endangered, and vulnerable North American butterflies and the habitats that sustain them, with a focus on recovery, research and public education.

Newsletters

BFCI Background

Please read these articles in AZA's member magazine, Communiqué for an overview of the BFCI's history and programs:

Create It and They Will Come (120KB pdf): Connect December, 2007; BFCI member the Wilds tells the story of creating butterfly habitat and monitoring management impacts in southeast Ohio.
Passing Through Instars: Butterfly Conservation Grows Through Experience (124KB pdf): Communiq� September, 2005; BFCI members' butterfly conservation efforts are expanding to include more vulnerable species and more facilities.
Linking Up for Lepidoptera (788KB pdf): Communiq� December, 2002; Describes BFCI's efforts on behalf of the Karner blue butterfly.
Butterfly Conservation Initiative: Communiq� June, 2003; This issue focuses upon the work of the BFCI and its members and partners.
Northwest Butterfly Conservation and Recovery Workshop (208KB pdf): Communiq� April, 2004; BFCI members in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia met to discuss progress and share information.