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Save our butterflies!

  • Congratulations to you all for your fantastic generosity!

      13 May 2023
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    Woohoo! Congratulations to you all for your fantastic generosity! Thanks to you, our donors, to our matching sponsors and to #GenerosityGenerator2023, our Butterfly Discovery Project is now off to a tremendous start to save our butterflies and give them a name and a voice to protect them. We raised over $8,071.78 which will help to cover some of the costs of the extensive DNA and research work required to identify our unnamed butterflies, found only in NZ. We so appreciate that you care deeply enough as we do!

    If you would like to continue to follow our project please like our Facebook page here:

    https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087047462408

    or become a member of the Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust here:

    https://www.nzbutterflies.org.nz/members/join/

    or sign up to our weekly e-news here:

    https://www.mb.org.nz

    With very special thanks to our our sponsors G M Gibson Accountants Ltd, Tilt Digital and Umu Pizzeria in Kingsland for their unwavering support and generosity. Thanks also goes to our consistent heroes who support the Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust.

    The team from The Funding Network who put together #GenerosityGenerator2023 and Givealittle have been an inspiration to our fundraising cause and to the success of this campaign. We thank them especially for their unbelievable motivation, guidance and help.

    Thanks so much everyone!

    From our volunteers, Aashna, Angela and Jacqui

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  • Happy Birthday, Sir David Attenborough!

      8 May 2023
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    For many years we have respected the work and knowledge of Sir David Attenborough. It was Sir David that revealed "Australia and New Zealand have an estimated 800 thousand of the world's species, but only 30% of these species have been discovered and named."

    "Our biodiversity is declining because of a wide range of threats. It's surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth," he said. "It's the range of biodiversity that we must care for - the whole thing."

    News this morning is that two new species of butterfly elsewhere in the world have been identified and named: Saurona triangula and S. aurigera.

    “Butterflies are under enormous pressure from habitat loss, and we desperately need to identify and study new species before time runs out for them,” said Blanca Huertas, Senior Curator, Lepidoptera from the Natural History Museum in London.

    "Naming a genus is not something that happens very often," she said.

    Huertas is a member of an international group of researchers using advanced DNA analysis and other techniques to identify and name butterflies. Sir David Attenborough said that we needed the taxonomic system to understand the natural world. Taxonomy is the branch of science concerned with naming, defining and classifying biological organisms based on shared characteristics.

    In the UK, three-quarters of all butterfly species are now believed to be in decline, while across the globe they are similarly threatened.

    Please tell your friends about this! And here's great news... Tomorrow (Tuesday) they could flex that very special superpower we all have - GENEROSITY!

    Between midday and 1pm tomorrow it's ‘Superpower Hour’ where all donations up to $50 to our crowdfunding campaign will be doubled!*

    Thanks to The Funding Network NZ and a generous, anonymous donor, there will be $400 of match funding attached to our crowdfunding campaign for one hour only. It’s up to YOU to use your Generosity Superpower to unlock it!

    How’s that for a cool way to spend your lunch break? Don’t forget to tell your mates about it too! Set an alarm so you don't miss out.

    Visit https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/save-our-butterflies between 12pm and 1pm on Tuesday, 9 May to make a donation and watch it double!

    *Donations will be matched until match funding has been used up.

    ** Photo courtesy of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia (www.dfat.gov.au), Wikimedia

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  • This is AMAZING!!!

      1 May 2023
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    Wow! We have been absolutely blown away by the support we've had on the very first day of our @GenerosityGenerator2023 campaign It's wonderful to see how much support our campaign is getting.

    We also have some more exciting news to share with you.

    Over the next three days, D M Gibson Accountants is offering up to $500 to match any donations our campaign receives. So if you donate $20, it's worth $40. Donate $50 and it becomes $100 in the fund!

    Have you come across D M Gibson Accountants, here in Auckland? They are committed to forming close partnerships with their clients so they better understand their unique situations and customise the ways they help. Their commitment to excellence and the exceptional service they offer is evident in their clients' loyalty.

    Their support for our cause is a pretty good reason why you should share this update with your friends and family members, so they can take part as well, and what's more learn about the importance of our butterflies and moths. AND have their chance to "double their money".

    Thanks again.

    PS This copper was in Geoff Henderson's garden in Rangiora, North Canterbury. Look at the colours!

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