Prettier butterflies get all the conservation attention while the rest are left out

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-08-27 01:00

International

Photo by Vivek Doshi on Unsplash

Prettier butterflies receive disproportionately more public attention, research and legal protection, even though some less visually appealing species may face greater extinction risks, according to international research. The team conducted a survey of over 21,000 people from around the world to determine the perceived beauty of a range of butterflies from online images. From this survey, they built a Species Beauty Index, which they then compared to recent research, conservation efforts, and public attention, finding that aesthetically appealing species were more likely to be featured in frameworks that guide funding and management actions, whereas less appealing species were not, regardless of their conservation status.

Journal/
conference: Current Biology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Universita` di Firenze, Italy

Funder: M.P. and L.D. acknowledge funding from the University of Florence in the frame of the ‘‘Bando competitivo d’Ateneo’’ – 2021; project UNIFI .EXTRA 2023; project UNIFI EXTRA 2024. L.D. and V.Z. acknowledge funding from the Italian Ministry for University and Research (‘‘PNRR. Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza’’ ministerial funds, 2022–2024). M.M. was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 101206623. C.J.W. was supported by the Wellcome Trust award 220540/Z/20/A, ‘‘Wellcome Sanger Institute Quinquennial Review 2021–2026.’’ K.L. was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation grant 202869.

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