{"id":142957,"date":"2019-08-07T08:18:16","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T06:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/steve-woodhall-to-talk-about-impacts-of-environmental-change-and-citizen-science-on-butterflies-at-crocworld-monthly-talk\/"},"modified":"2019-08-07T08:18:16","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T06:18:16","slug":"steve-woodhall-to-talk-about-impacts-of-environmental-change-and-citizen-science-on-butterflies-at-crocworld-monthly-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/steve-woodhall-to-talk-about-impacts-of-environmental-change-and-citizen-science-on-butterflies-at-crocworld-monthly-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Woodhall to talk about impacts of environmental change and citizen science on butterflies at Crocworld Monthly Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Woodhall to talk about impacts of environmental change and citizen science on butterflies at Crocworld Monthly Talk<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For Steve Woodhall, a simple boyhood fascination of moths and butterflies developed into a lifelong career in lepidopterology, with many years dedicated to unearthing the behavioural patterns and discovering the many intricacies of these vibrant flying insects. A leading expert on the subject, Steve Woodhall will give the Crocworld Conservation Centre monthly talk on \u2018Significant changes in the range of local butterflies\u2019 on Saturday, 10 August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is always such an honour and a privilege to have Steve Woodhall talk at Crocworld Conservation Centre,\u201d said Martin Rodrigues, Manager of Crocworld Conservation Centre. \u201cHe has such unique way of communicating his significant subject knowledge to the audience \u2013 from the young novice to avid butterfly enthusiast. His passion for moths and butterflies is always evident and I\u2019m sure visitors will gain so much from this particular topic choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in the United Kingdom, Woodhall recalls developing an interest in butterflies at the age of five, when his dad showed him some exotic Emperor Moths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bug truly bit when I started school and one of my teachers was a \u2018proper\u2019 lepidopterist,\u201d recalled Woodhall. \u201cMy closest childhood friend then moved to Tanzania and started sending me \u2018Mills Special\u2019 ciggie tins full of butterflies \u2013 very like the ones we find in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). I simply had to come here!\u201d<\/p>\n

A totally self-taught lepidopterist \u2013 with qualifications in Chemistry and Marketing \u2013 Steve emigrated to South Africa in 1980 where he lived in Johannesburg until relocating to Gillitts in KZN in 2005. He joined the Lepidopterists\u2019 Society of Africa in 1986 where he held the position of president from 2008 to 2016.<\/p>\n

Steve has authored and co-authored a number of books over the years, including \u2018Field Guide to Butterflies and Moths of South Africa\u2019, \u2018What\u2019s that Butterfly?\u2019 and \u2018Gardening for Butterflies\u2019 (with Lindsay Gray). Most recently he developed the \u2018Butterflies of South Africa\u2019 app in 2017.<\/p>\n

Steve also formed part of the team that worked with the Animal Demography Unit (ADU) of the University of Cape Town \u2013 alongside Prof Les Underhill \u2013 on the SA Butterfly Conservation Atlas (SABCA) project and, more recently, its update, SALCA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis led to the database that has given us so much insight into population changes over the years, and a landmark publication of the Atlas,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The ADU instigated the now-famous Bird Atlas, and pioneered the \u2018Citizen Science\u2019 movement that has now spread worldwide. The LepMAP site \u2013 which many local butterfly and moth lovers use \u2013 is an example of this.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizen Science, and the contributions of amateur nature lovers, are a vital force in tracking the changes in the environment that we are all so worried about,\u201d said Steve. \u201cIt has grown from small beginnings in South Africa to a global movement, which means that butterfly photos you take in your garden or local nature reserve can contribute to evidence that climate change is a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his talk, Steve will touch on some examples of local butterflies (from KZN and South Africa) whose range has changed recently, as well as the data evidence that has been used to track those changes. He will discuss whether the evidence supports climate change as the cause, or whether there are other factors at play.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne example I\u2019ll discuss is a butterfly, native to the subtropical\/tropical East African coast, which has spread as far as Cape Town \u2013 but the evidence shows it\u2019s probably not climate change related,\u201d said Steve. \u201cCome to the talk to find out why!\u201d<\/p>\n

Audiences will also be treated to an Early Bird Breakfast with coffee or tea \u2013 inclusive of the price of the talk \u2013 which will be supplied by the onsite restaurant<\/a>, Fish Eagle Caf\u00e9. The cost of the tickets is R50 per person. For more information or to make a booking, contact Morne van Zyl at the Fish Eagle Caf\u00e9 on 083 658 7073 or email mvanzyl@cbl.co.za. Alternatively, contact Martin Rodrigues on 078 484 1859 or Crocworld Conservation Centre on 039 976 1103.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click HERE to submit your Durban \/ Kwazulu-Natal Press Release<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Woodhall to talk about impacts of environmental change and citizen science on butterflies at Crocworld Monthly Talk: For Steve Woodhall, a simple boyhood fascination of moths and butterflies developed into a lifelong career in lepidopterology, with many years dedicated to unearthing the behavioural patterns and discovering the many intricacies of these vibrant flying insects. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[8275,3335,953],"class_list":{"0":"post-142957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-durban","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-mydurban-co-za","9":"tag-newspaper","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}