Rare Florida butterflies reflect impact of climate change

From the Miami blue to the Schaus’ swallowtail, South Florida is home to many endangered and declining pollinator species that exist only here.

The Miami blue butterfly alone has dropped by a minimum of 99 percent in area of occupancy and population size since 1992. To find out what’s happening, the Miami Herald spoke to a conservation and research specialist at Zoo Miami, Tiffany Moore, to answer readers’ questions about the link to climate change.

Why are we seeing the number of our pollinators drop?

There’s a number of things that are causing declines or population shifts. No. 1 is development. Outside Everglades National Park, there’s only less than 2 percent of Pine Rockland left — major developments over the decades have caused habitat loss for a lot of species. Second is climate