GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michigan Nature Association put together a short documentary called “Life on the Brink,” which shows the conservation work to save the endangered Poweshiek skipperling.
John Ball Zoo, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Michigan State University’s Haddad Lab held an event at the zoo Tuesday to celebrate the documentary’s release.
The tiny butterfly used to be abundant across the prairies of several upper-Midwest states and central Canadian provinces, but now, the butterfly is found only in a handful of places throughout Oakland County, Michigan and Manitoba, Canada.
Organizations have stepped up to join the Poweshiek Skipperling International Partnership, as the threat becomes dire.
“For the past three decades, MNA has been working to preserve and manage occupied habitat for the Poweshiek skipperling, and we are proud to now be working with many partners to better understand and manage the habitat and address the conservation needs of this now federally endangered species,” Andrew Bacon, MNA conservation director, said. “Our new video ‘Life on the Brink’ brings the issue of habitat loss and species extinction to the forefront, highlighting the importance of protecting more habitat now, before it’s too late.”
“This project started with just 32 butterflies,” David Pavlik, research assistant in the Haddad Lab, added. “We now have more than 850 caterpillars that we will be working with this year thanks to a successful captive rearing and breeding at both John Ball Zoo and Minnesota Zoo.
The Haddad Lab and John Ball Zoo have been managing an insurance population of Poweshiek skipperling since 2021, isolating the endangered butterflies from threats in the wild to prevent extinction.
"The idea here is that we're making a captive insurance population, or lots of captive Poweshiek skipperling caterpillars, so that we can release them into the wild to bolster their wild populations and, someday, have enough of them that we can start doing reintroductions," Bill Flanagan, conservation manager at John Ball Zoo, explained to FOX 17 Tuesday.
To get involved in the efforts to save the Poweshiek, click here.
