I hear everyone getting rid of all the fallen leaves is a big reason fireflies aren't as common anymore. The leaves provide food, moisture, and shelter for the fireflies for the 2 years before they get wings. So when people collect all the leaves off the ground, they get rid of all the things that keep them alive.

I'm only 40 years old and I remember how different it was. If you went on a weekend trip your car would be splattered with insects all over. Our garden used to be full of butterflies and other insects. I've been stung so many times but for my kids it's a really rare occasion.

Not to mention the weeks of snow instead of the scattered few days we have now. And hardly anybody seems to care.

We seem to be finally starting to wake up a little bit. We've brought back alligators, buffalo, and wolves. Probably still losing more than we're saving, but we're still pretty new at treating animals as more then NPCs. Formalized animal rehabs with standards only really became a thing in the 1970s and 80s. Even Roosevelt making national parks took until the start of the last century.

Most animals are drawn in a way that the viewer can identify them.

It's not a realistic image.

Interesting observation. Often one of the best times to spot and identify butterflies is really in the morning before they've warmed up and are basking in the sun with their wings wide open. I don't think it's unreasonable for people to draw butterflies as they're most easily seen.

Things were much better back in my day. Everything went to hell around the Triassic. You kids wouldn't know, with your phones and your tablets and opposable thumbs.

EDIT: That was a good read btw

I just happened to step outside late one night as the mosquito truck rolled by, with a dopey sounding single stroke engine pumping out a cloud of spray.

It works, we don't have any skeeters in our neighborhood. We also don't have lightning bugs, labybugs, dragonflies, butterflies, bees, or most other flying critters. We do have wasps, though. Those bastards are indestructible apparently.

I was in Queens, NY, in THE city, no woods, pastures, or even parks around anywhere nearby, and yet there were lightning bugs everywhere we went at night. We can't have them where we live next to nature, but they have them in the city, because they don't spray clouds of POISON down their streets, "for the bugs."

I mentioned this to group of residents recently, and we all agreed said that we'd be happy to trade a few skeeter bites each summer if it meant we could see lightning bugs and butterflies again.

I remember the fireflies in late summer outside the cities. They are nowhere to be found anymore, unfortunately.

The first game literally made by furries and featured many old school furry artists. Some of which have died or are dying now.

Or, leave the leaves, and have beautiful lightning bugs in the summer

The trend here seems to be converting old warehouses and factories to residential units, but they're all trendy high rent things. Other than that, it's still all single family McMansion neighborhoods that are around 500-800,000. Not sure where all these rich people are coming from, but I know I'm not in that club! 😄

I bought my condo at a terrible time, but it feels like a steal now compared to what I could afford today. I'm surrounded by trees, 2 parks, and a swamp, so it's pretty quiet, there's still a fair bit of wildlife, and a moderately good use of space. They keep building dang giant warehouses though, which stinks and brings truck traffic to roads that are way too narrow and full of tight turns.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/fifty-years-ago-david-attenborough-changed-the-way-we-see-the-world-now-we-must-heed-his-warning-8294239

In my lifetime – and even more so in Sir David’s – the natural world has suffered an extraordinary and devastating decline. Since the spread of industrial agriculture, the planet has lost more than two-thirds of its wildlife populations. Today, 96 per cent of all mammal biomass on Earth is made up of humans and farmed animals. Just four per cent is wild.

At COP26, he ended his address with words that deserve to be remembered: “If working apart we are a force powerful enough to destabilise our planet, surely working together we are powerful enough to save it… In my lifetime I’ve witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could – and should – witness a wonderful recovery.”

Some spots do better than others, for sure, but everywhere is always under pressure for something.

The Canadian gov really dropped the ball on saving your Spotted Owls. I think there is 1 female left and they want to build a ski resort in the middle of her territory. 😔

More individual forests, more square footage, or both?

I legitimately don't know, I'm not asking as a gotcha

That's getting harder and harder to do for a lot of people. 🥺

It's one of the reason I try to represent a lot of more rare and exotic owls here. A lot of stuff we will never have the opportunity to see, especially in person, so I want to at least make people see what needs protecting. I think that's why well-run zoos and animal education centers are so important. It's near impossible to get people to care about things that they don't know even exist.