PROTECTIVE PRINCESS
JOINS A FLUTTERLY WONDERFUL BUTTERFLY COUNT
Gently cradling a butterfly in her hands, Princess Charlotte, six, appears captivated in this sweet photo taken by her mother the Duchess of Cambridge.
Like her big brother Prince George, who was photographed among butterflies at the Natural History Museum to mark his first birthday in July 2014, Charlotte seems to have inherited her family’s love of wildlife and nature.
She had joined the Big Butterfly Count, an initiative by the charity Butterfly Conservation, whose president is Sir David Attenborough.
The Duke of Cambridge and Kate shared the shot and two more butterfly snaps on Instagram as the count, which ran from 16 July to 8 August, drew to a close. They wrote: “We wanted to share these beautiful Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies as part of Big # ButterflyCount initiative taking place across the UK. @savebutterflies are encouraging us all to count these incredible creatures because not only are they beautiful creatures to be around but they are also extremely important. Butterflies are vital parts of the ecosystem as both pollinators and components of the food chain.”
FOURTH-GENERATION NATURE FAN
William’s grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh was similarly passionate about conservation. As president of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature he was pictured in a cloud of butterflies on a visit to a threatened habitat in Mexico in 1988.
The UK’s butterfly population is under threat from climate change and habitat destruction. Twenty species are in decline, though nine are growing in numbers. This year, almost 100,000 people submitted sightings during the survey, counting more than 1.2 million butterflies and moths.
‘Not only are butterflies beautiful creatures to be around but they are also extremely important’