Butterflies Flutterbies
This week saw the beginning of our new butterfly project; studying the impact (if any) of road and trail disturbance on the fruit feeding butterfly communities in the Yachana Reserve. Matt and Sam set off on a sunny Saturday morning, with high hopes and a much higher goal: setting up 40 butterfly traps in one morning! Once in the field they quickly ran into a number of logistical problems that slowed their progress to a crawl. Morale was low until Matt lost his footing and slid into a ravine, bringing a trap and a cup of fermented banana bait down on his head. Then as they ate lunch in the pouring rain, they decided to give up for now and head back to camp.
After some minor tweaking of the project design, a group of volunteers and staff (Sam, Ali, Matt, Emma, Emily, Amy and Vicki), headed out Sunday morning to try again. Within hours the traps were filling up with butterflies. By the end of the day they had collected 32 butterflies, with two new additions to the species list – nice job. 13 days left to go….
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