Yo yo, those in Twin Peaks, San Francisco, take a look outside your window. See a pretty pregnant butterfly? Keep looking, because at around 2:30 this afternoon 22 of Mission Blue Butterflies were released in your neck of the woods:
To aid the recovery of the beautiful Mission Blue
Butterfly, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (SFRPD) and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will start releasing 22 of the endangered butterflies
on Thursday, April 16, 2009
in natural areas on San Francisco’s Twin Peaks.
The San Francisco Bay Area is home to
twenty species of endangered plants and twenty-three federally endangered
animal species, including the Mission blue
butterfly which was added to the list of endangered species in 1976. Much of
the Mission blue butterfly’s habitat of coastal scrub containing the crucial
plant genus Lupinus has been destroyed, but fragments remain on San Bruno Mountain
in San Mateo County
and Twin Peaks Natural Area in San
Francisco.
“The mission blue butterfly is a
critical indicator of the health of San
Francisco’s biological diversity,” said Jared
Blumenfeld, General Manger of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. “This magnificent species, which can be found
nowhere else in the world, cannot be allowed to go extinct. By releasing
twenty-two mission blue butterflies into their native habitat on Twin Peaks, we hope to bring this species back from the
brink.”
The release of the butterflies – all pregnant females
-- is being orchestrated in hopes of replenishing a population in San Francisco that has
waned in recent years. Between 2001 and
2007, San Francisco Recreation and Parks staff observed only two adults and two
larvae on Twin Peaks, down from 10 adults in
1997 and more than 150 in 1981.
[Photo via The Mission Blue Butterfly Project. That little guy is a dude, and therefore not pregnant like those released today.]
