Neil Collier Chief Investigator

Reproduced from The Advertiser Monday May 10th 2004 p9
Rebecca Jenkins Reporter

It sounds like a simple idea, but it could save Adelaide’s butterflies from environmental danger. Experts are looking for the public’s help in counting the insects and establishing a South Australian butterfly database.

Flinders University Ph D student Neil Collier who is undertaking the research as part of his studies said there was no long term data to show how our butterflies were coping.  “There are a lot of amateurs out there who do good work, but they have not got the resources needed to keep this sort of work going” he said. There are fears that butterfly numbers are in decline, with loss of habitat their number one enemy. , Black Hill Conservation Park, Cleland Conservation Park, Brownhill Creek Recreation Park, Belair National Park, Shepherds Hill Recreation Park, and Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park are among sites being surveyed by researchers.

Mr Collier is testing whether a method called the “Pollard Walk” will be an effective counting tool. It involves volunteers walking around their chosen site for about an hour monitoring what butterflies they see. The project is based on a successful British scheme which recorded butterfly numbers across the country.

Part of the SA research will focus on the coastal bitter bush blue butterfly, a species endangered by the impact of urban development on its habitat. Researchers plan to find out if the butterflies will set up new colonies by seeing how far they are prepared to fly to their host plant.

Project supervisor and Flinders University Senior Lecturer Dr Duncan Mackay said it was hoped that widespread interest in butterflies would make it a success.

The three year project has been funded by the Australian Research Council and the Nature Foundation of SA, and Butterfly Conservation SA Inc.

For more information please contact neil.collier@flinders.edu.au