Austria butterfly count records over 17,000 sightings

More than 1,000 participants took part in a large-scale butterfly count across Austria from July 20 to August 9. The citizen science initiative, organized by Blühendes Österreich and ‘Natur im Garten’, recorded a total of 17,456 butterfly sightings via the ‘Schmetterlinge Österreichs’ app.

The Emperor moth (Kaisermantel) was the most frequently reported species with 1,981 sightings. Other highly recorded species included the Large Ringlet (Großes Ochsenauge) with 1,723 sightings and the American Sable (Russischer Bär) with 1,423 sightings.

Experts noted that species like the Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell benefit from milder winters, which aids their overwintering in the Alps. The data collected through this project, which has recorded over 1.2 million findings since 2016, is used to document species distribution and support biodiversity research.