{"id":88450,"date":"2025-08-22T10:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T10:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88450\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T10:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T10:08:15","slug":"rare-butterfly-spotted-for-1st-time-in-over-a-century-at-torontos-high-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88450\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare butterfly spotted for 1st time in over a century at Toronto’s High Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rare butterfly species \u2014 the zebra swallowtail \u2014 has been spotted in Toronto’s High Park for the first time in over a century.<\/p>\n

The rare butterfly was spotted by Crystal Byrne, a butterfly enthusiast, when she was visiting High Park to catch a glimpse of the different species that appear at this time of the year.<\/p>\n

“This stunning black and white butterfly came out. And I was like, that’s a zebra swallowtail,” said Byrne. “Never did I think that I was going to see one there.”<\/p>\n

The species was last spotted back in 1896, Bob Yukich, a member of the Toronto Entomologists’ Association told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Wednesday.<\/p>\n

‘Like a little gift’<\/p>\n

Byrne, who spent days maintaining the black oak savannah \u2014 an endangered ecosystem in High Park \u2014 felt “very lucky” to be the one to spot the rare zebra swallowtail.<\/p>\n

“I feel like I spent a lot of time in that park \u2026 it felt like a little gift that that land gave back,” Byrne said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The zebra swallowtail was common in southwestern Ontario, around Windsor in the early 1900s. Development and cutting down woods in the area led to a decline in the species. (Submitted by Crystal Byrne)<\/p>\n

Around 74 butterfly species have been found in High Park since the 1980s, according to the High Park Nature Centre.<\/p>\n

Byrne said it was a “beacon of hope” to see the rare butterfly because its host plant, Pawpaw, is not common in the area.<\/p>\n

Other species like the cabbage white butterflies that were surrounding the zebra swallowtail were very territorial, Byrne said.<\/p>\n

“Every time the swallowtail would land, it would get chased off by cabbage white,” Byrne said.<\/p>\n

Habitat loss a cause for decline in butterfly species<\/p>\n

Habitat loss accompanied by widespread use of insecticides has negatively impacted the butterfly population, according to the Toronto Entomologists’ Association.<\/p>\n

Monarch butterflies are another species that have hit an “alarmingly low” population in North America<\/a> and require international cooperation between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, Ryan Norris, a University of Guelph professor told CBC\u00a0News earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The zebra swallowtail was common in southwestern Ontario, around Windsor in the early 1900s.<\/p>\n

With development and cutting down woods in the area,\u00a0the\u00a0Pawpaw started to disappear, which led to a decline in the species, Yukich said.<\/p>\n

“They’re fascinating butterflies. It’s just something you just don’t see anymore,” Yukich said.<\/p>\n

Ontario’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act classifies the zebra swallowtail as a “specially protected” species. It is illegal to harm, capture, transport or kill the butterfly, according to a City of Toronto report.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yukich says it is special to see\u00a0a species like the zebra swallowtail after hearing about their habitat loss for decades.<\/p>\n

“Butterflies are declining and when you get something like that, it’s returning and not disappearing. It’s fascinating,” Yukich said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rare butterfly species \u2014 the zebra swallowtail \u2014 has been spotted in Toronto’s High Park for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[52326,52325,52323,52319,49,48,52321,52324,52322,66,3302,52327,323,52320],"class_list":{"0":"post-88450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-black-and-white-butterfly","9":"tag-bob-yukich","10":"tag-butterfly-enthusiast","11":"tag-butterfly-species","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-crystal-byrne","15":"tag-high-park","16":"tag-rare-butterfly","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-toronto","19":"tag-toronto-entomologists-association","20":"tag-wildlife","21":"tag-zebra-swallowtail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}