this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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UK Nature and Environment

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Young people can't remember how much more wildlife there used to be (organicallyhuman.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Walking in England’s New Forest in 1892, butterfly collector S. G. Castle Russell encountered such numbers of the insects that they “were so thick that I could hardly see ahead”. On another occasion, he “captured a hundred purple hairstreaks” with two sweeps of his net.

Patrick Barkham, who recounts these riots of nature in his 2010 book on butterflies, laments never seeing such a sight. However, new research suggests Barkham is a rarity, because a lot of people are forgetting, or just don’t appreciate, how much wildlife there was.

To gauge this effect, Lizzie Jones at Royal Holloway, University of London, compared population records dating back to 1966 of 10 UK bird species against public perceptions of those birds. More than 900 people told her how abundant they thought the species – including declining ones such as house sparrows – were today and when they were aged 18.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yeah the front grille of my car remembers.

Traveling from Montreal to Chicoutimi or to Sherbrooke, the car used to be covered in bugs.

Nowadays I don't even have to take it for a wash. I get the odd bug on my windshield and that's it

Probably due to overuse of pesticides.

[–] Stovetop 8 points 6 months ago (4 children)

I've always wondered about this anecdote, partly because I still see a lot of bugs when going out into the country. Is it that there are actually fewer bugs, or do the more aerodynamic cars of today cause fewer dead bugs to stick to bumpers/grills/windshields?

[–] SpruceBringsteen 14 points 6 months ago

There are fewer bugs.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

I've had the same car for 15 years. In that span alone I can confirm there's a lot less bugs on my car.

[–] Ledivin 2 points 6 months ago

Is it that there are actually fewer bugs, or do the more aerodynamic cars of today cause fewer dead bugs to stick to bumpers/grills/windshields?

It's actually the opposite - more aerodynamic means a smaller cushion of air, which should translate to hitting more bugs because they aren't pushed out of the way as strongly or for as long. Instead, insect populations have fallen so dramatically that this effect still doesn't make up for it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I see this comment so much, but it was never true where I lived. In fact, I only ever experienced the insects covering my windshield thing for the first time less than a decade ago when driving through North Dakota, Montana.... Big, open spaces, I guess. Where I grew up, there were trees and houses everywhere, no real open spaces. So maybe that made the difference.

I just drove through Montana again and had barely half a dozen insects on my windshield throughout the trip, so I do believe that's a very obvious sign for people who live in that kind of area.

Anyway, what I miss is frogs. I used to see frogs and toads and even turtles all the time. Can hardly remember the last time I saw one.