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Help the Butterfly Conservation count the world's butterflies

1:09
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What is global warming?
John Stillwell/PA Wire/AP
ByMaryellen McGrath and Jeff Swartz
July 20, 2018, 7:29 PM

Calling all nature conservationists!

The Butterfly Conservation, with the help of Sir David Attenborough, a longtime naturalist and broadcaster for the BBC, is asking for your help from now until Aug. 12 in counting the world's butterflies.

PHOTO: A common Silverline butterfly sits on a flower on March 17, 2015 in Kolkata, India.
A common Silverline butterfly sits on a flower on March 17, 2015 in Kolkata, India. PHOTOGRAPH BY Avrajjal Ghosh / Barcroft Media (Photo credit should read Avrajjal Ghosh / Barcroft India via Getty Images)
Barcroft Media via Getty Images
A butterfly rests on a Zinnia flower in Nakhon Sawan Province, north of Bangkok, June 2, 2018.
Chaiwat Subprasom/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Over the past several years, butterfly counts have been in a steady decline due in part to the growing human population and climate change.

"Butterflies react very quickly to change in their environment which makes them excellent biodiversity indicators. Butterfly declines are an early warning for other wildlife losses," according to bigbutterflycount.org.

A flurry of Red Admiral butterflies around a tree branch taken on June 9, 2011.
Alastair Jennings/Digital Camera Magazine via Getty Images, FILE
A Holly Blue butterfly (or Hill Hedge Blue) (Celastrina argiolus), is seen on a flower, Jan. 2, 2008.
Andia/UIG via Getty Images, FILE

The Butterfly Conservation's goal is to have the public count and record 17 species in the next three weeks.

"Some of my most memorable experiences have happened when I've been simply sitting and watching the wildlife," Attenborough said.

For more information on how to join the world's biggest butterfly count, contact: Big Butterfly Count.

African monarch butterfly (Danaus chrysippus), Buffalo Beach, is seen in Western Australia, Jan. 1, 2011.
Auscape/UIG via Getty Images, FILE
Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are seen in winter from November to March at the Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca El Rosario, Angangueo, Michoacan state in central Mexico, Feb. 23, 2017.
Sylvain Cordier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, FILE

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