Endangered Species Day: Extirpated species in Ontario and what you can do to help
 |
Ontario has many endangered, threatened, special concern and extirpated animals and plants that need special consideration on Endangered Species Day. I've celebrated this in awareness day in the past. Sometimes we can be less concerned about animals we've never seen before. The term endangered species often makes people think of Beluga whales, Polar Bears, wolves, and other mammals that get a lot of publicity. Cute, furry animals that we're familiar with. Or ferocious predators. Birds, bugs, and slimy species aren't on our radar. We see more wolves and polar bears used in awareness campaigns than we do the Karner Blue butterfly. It's one of the four extirpated insect species in Ontario. There are 23 bugs on Ontario's list of insects at risk- and the Karner Blue is one of the most striking of them all. This butterfly used to be widespread in Toronto, London, and Sarnia until habitat loss resulted in a huge decline in the species.
Posts
