00:00Music
00:07Today we are at the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge
00:10and we have been doing the very first release of the endangered Keno checkerspot butterfly.
00:15This is a species that we've been rearing in the butterfly conservation lab at the San Diego Zoo.
00:21Music
00:23We collected Keno checkerspot butterfly adults in spring of 2016
00:28and they laid eggs.
00:31The Keno checkerspot larvae have been asleep
00:34and what we've released today on the refuge are sleeping larvae,
00:38are larvae that are in this period of dormancy.
00:41So we have been stewarding them through this period in their life
00:45just by keeping them climate controlled and keeping them free from predators and dry.
00:51We're releasing the larvae on the refuge because this is part of their historic range.
00:57They were once very abundant here and there have been many years where no butterflies were observed at all on
01:02the refuge.
01:03So what we're doing is an augmentation effort for the populations that we hope still exist here on the refuge.
01:09What we decided to use for the release is a seed feeder.
01:13We wanted to have something that was really porous, that was large enough to allow the larvae to crawl out
01:18of,
01:18and that would allow them to experience the environment in which they are going to be released.
01:23Music
01:28When we got to the site today, we pulled all of the larvae that were in the smaller cups out.
01:34Each one was labeled as to which release capsule they were going into.
01:37The larvae were transferred into each capsule.
01:40Each capsule was placed at the base of a shrub and wired to the shrub.
01:47The Kino checker spot is an iconic San Diego species.
01:51It's one in our own backyard and it has experienced drastic decline,
01:55largely due to development in human activities.
01:58So while it's our responsibility just in that right to be part of the solution for this butterfly,
02:04they're also really important pollinator indicator species.
02:07And often these indicator species can be a sign that something's wrong with the habitat.
02:11So one of the things that we hope to learn from this is what the best release method will be,
02:16and we hope to come back out in spring and find butterflies flying around this habitat.
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