Oregon Zoo releases thousands of rare butterflies in coastal mountain range

By KPTV Staff

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — Thousands of beautiful rare butterflies have been released at select sites in the Oregon coastal mountain range.

The Oregon Zoo says 2,172 Oregon silverspot larvae were released at Saddle Mountain last week. It’s the biggest-ever silverspot release at Saddle Mountain and the most larvae released by the zoo in the past three years.

The Oregon silverspot has been listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act since 1980. The zoo says just a handful of isolated populations remain today.

“In all probability, most of these silverspot populations would now be extinct if it weren’t for this recovery program,” said Travis Koons, who oversees the zoo’s silverspot conservation efforts in partnership with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo.

The zoo says a small number of female silverspots are collected by field biologist each summer and brought to the zoo to lay eggs. The eggs hatch into tiny caterpillars, which remain dormant through the winter. The caterpillars “wake up” in spring and grow quickly.

When the time is right, zoo staff transport the silverspots to field sites in order to bolster the remaining Oregon populations.

“These beautiful pollinators have lost a lot of ground,” Koons said. “But if they continue to breed, and if we continue to restore and protect their habitat, we can give them a good chance to survive.”

The Oregon Zoo became the first facility in 2019 to successfully breed silverspots.

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