The world is warming up since 1900, and is almost certainly caused by human industrial activity throughout the world. The global warming has its impact on wildlife as it pushes species to move to cooler climates either towards the Poles or up mountains.
In Egypt, The climate has changed from wet to increasingly dry conditions, resulting in the very arid climate of modern Egypt. As a result, many species of animals and plants have been marooned on tops of the highest mountains in Egypt contained in the Ring Dyke around St Katherine. Sinai Baton Blue butterfly, the world’s smallest butterfly, is a good example for those species. Caterpillars of this butterfly feed only on the flowers and buds of the Sinai Thyme, which is nearly endemic and another example of the marooned species.
The survival of Sinai Baton Blue on Thyme is threatened by predators from ants, grazing and collecting the Thyme patches for medicinal purposes. Global warming also makes Sinai Thyme moving higher up the mountain and their total area getting smaller. But adults of this butterfly are weak fliers and can't move between separate thyme patches, making the situation worse.
Now, the butterfly is at risk of extinction and needs to be conserved. We can minimize threats
facing it by controlling both grazing, through the old tradition of Bedouin known as helf, and over-collection of Thyme.
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