One of nature’s key barometers is vanishing. Miranda Jessop meets the Twickenham resident determined to get them flapping again...
I am having coffee with conservation biologist Astrid Vargas at her riverside home in Twickenham. A view of the fast-flowing river lies before us, and on the wall of the sitting room behind it hangs a colourful frieze of hand-crafted butterflies.
It’s a vivid reminder of Astrid’s current crusade: to raise awareness of the tragic decline of these beloved insects. Born in Puerto Rico, Astrid has had a passion for nature since childhood.
“When I was six years old, my cousin gave me a book called The Marvels of the Jungle,” she recalls. “It made me feel that I was going to work with animals all my life, and that’s exactly what I have done.”
Astrid moved to Spain with her family when she was two years old and went on to study veterinary medicine. When she qualified, she knew she didn’t want to be restricted to working in a clinic.
Instead, she put her expertise to work in conservation biology and, since then, has dedicated her life to saving endangered species.
Astrid Vargas
“I was awarded a PhD scholarship by the University of Wyoming in the United States to work with a species called the black-footed ferret,” she tells me. “It was critically endangered – just 10 individuals left in the world.”
From there it was on to Madagascar, where she worked for four years on a programme with the golden-crowned sifaka, a mostly white lemur boasting prominent furry ears.
“This was about creating protected areas; exploring ways of coexisting with endangered species and seeing how those species can help communities to thrive again.”
Then, in early 2003, the predicament of the Iberian lynx drew Astrid back to Spain. “At the time, it was the most endangered cat in the world and I directed a captive breeding programme,” she explains. “Twenty-two years later, the Iberian lynx is off the endangered species list, and we now have about 3,000 in the wild. So it is a real success story.”
Since 2012, Astrid has focused on ecosystems. She helped initiate a big project in southern Spain, with the aim of restoring 2.6 million acres of land. “I focus a lot on biodiversity and how to bring species back. It’s something I really worry about. Everything is spiralling down.”
Which brings us to our main item of business: the desperate plight of the butterfly. In the general downward spiral, this is one of the creatures that is crashing the hardest. And it really matters.
“Butterflies are so important for us,” says Astrid. “Not only for their beauty, but because they are amazing pollinators and very good bioindicators – possibly the best of any species in the world.
Astrid Vargas
“Bioindicators are species that indicate the health of the system. So, if you find butterflies somewhere, it means you have a good environment. Where butterflies have gone, it’s like the tip of the iceberg – what is underneath has gone too. Once butterflies disappear, you know that many other species are caught up in the same extinction vortex.”
So when Astrid first read in a British magazine in 2018 that butterflies were going extinct, she knew that she had to get involved. At the time, she was living in Amsterdam.
“I knew nothing about these insects – all my life I had been with carnivores or people. But I thought to myself: ‘I bred lynx, I bred ferrets, surely I can breed butterflies?’” And so, on the roof of her Amsterdam home, that is exactly what she did. Her love affair with butterflies and her subsequent mission to save them from extinction had begun.
Astrid Vargas
In order to help raise awareness, Astrid has written and illustrated a beautiful book with all royalties donated to butterfly conservation. Fusing science, art, philosophy and conservation itself, and based on true events, On a Butterfly’s Wing charts the story of flightless butterfly La Reme, who narrates her life experiences from egg to death and beyond.
Interwoven with her life cycle is the life cycle of Astrid’s mother as she faces her own death. “The book is a celebration of life and a tribute to our constant process of transformation,” Astrid explains.
“It is also a call for action, offering positive suggestions on how we can team up with pollinators to help each other create a better world for us both.” Esteemed zoologist, conservationist and anthropologist, Dame Jane Goodall – with whom Astrid worked on the Iberian lynx programme – described the book as “absolutely delightful”, while Sir Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project, has identified it as “a book that can metamorphose into a family treasure”.
Astrid has been living in Twickenham with her family for the past three years and is keen to encourage initiatives to raise awareness amongst local communities.
Last year, she gave 44 of her riverside neighbours a caterpillar in a cup. As the caterpillars began their transformation, the group shared their experiences and consequent reflections via WhatsApp.
Astrid Vargas
“We went through the whole process together and, once we all had our butterflies, we met in a garden next to Orleans House and released them. It was so beautiful, bringing together neighbours of all ages, fostering learning and joy in a shared effort to support butterflies.”
At the same time, Astrid hand-delivered two chrysalises to Sir David Attenborough’s house in Richmond and she delights in showing me the handwritten note she received in return. Sir David would be “watching the nascent painted ladies with great attention”, it said.
All that aside, however, the statistics speak for themselves: worldwide butterfly distribution and abundance have fallen by 70% in the past 50 years—a decline that reaches a staggering 80% in the UK. One of the major causes is loss of habitat.
“Meadows are disappearing and so important for diversity,” explains Astrid. “Everything is turning into concrete, but one of the things we can all do is plant more flowers with nectar. Even if you don’t have a garden, plant them in boxes on your windowsill. If we create a flowery environment all around, that will make a huge difference.”
Campaigns such as ‘No Mow May’ are critically important. “If it’s possible, keep an area in your garden where you never mow at all and where you let wild flowers come back.” Astrid also asks that we become more mindful of the food we buy and support the kind of agriculture that is good for nature.
“The main reason for the decline is pesticides – every time the butterflies feed, they are getting poisoned,” she says. Yet despite the urgent need for action, Astrid is keen to keep the overall message positive.
“The narrative of the environmentalist can be all doom and gloom, but I believe we need one that gives hope and shows us we can do it. There’s huge potential for the recovery of butterflies and we do still have time.
“No one wants butterflies to go extinct, and once we start planting flowers, leaving grass to grow and using fewer pesticides, they will return. And the moment you start to recover butterflies, you bring diversity back in other ways too.”
On a Butterfly’s Wing: Lessons from Nature on Embracing Change, by Astrid Vargas, £14.99. Available from onabutterflyswing.com
