Princess Charlotte sweetly cradles a butterfly in snap taken by mum Kate Middleton as Royals share conservation message
PRINCESS Charlotte gently cradles a brightly-coloured butterfly in new images taken by mum Kate Middleton.
The snap, which shows the little royal cupping a Red Admiral between her palms, is one of three released by the Duchess of Cambridge today.
The images were taken as the youngster took part in the Big Butterfly Count in Norfolk, where she lives with her parents and brothers.
Kate shared the photos to encourage other families to take part too.
A post on the Twitter page she shares with Prince William reads: "We wanted to share these beautiful Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies as part of Big Butterfly Count initiatives taking place across the UK.
"Butterfly Conservation is encouraging us all to count these incredible creatures because not only are they beautiful creatures to be around but they are also extremely important."
The Cambridges are noted butterfly lovers, and took Prince George to the 'sensational butterflies' exhibit at London's Natural History Museum for his first birthday.
TRIBUTE TO PHILIP
The images also pay tribute to Prince Philip, who was a passionate conservationist.
The Duke of Edinburgh served as president of WWF-UK between 1961 and 1982, and was president emeritus of WWF International until he died.
During his time championing environmental issues for the charity, he visited more than 50 countries to promote their work.
William has followed in his grandfather's footsteps by announcing a £50million boost for innovative projects designed to save the planet last year.
The Duke of Cambridge, backed by the financial muscle of global philanthropists, launched The Earthshot Prize in October.
The scheme will hand £1million each to five winners every year for a decade.
STUNNING SNAP OF LITTLE PRINCESS
William said: “The plan is to bring together the best minds, the best possible solutions, to fixing and tackling some of the world’s greatest environmental challenges.
“We’ve got to harness our ingenuity and our ability to invent. The next ten years are a critical decade for change.
“Time is of the essence, which is why we believe that this very ambitious global prize is the only way forward.”
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Kate is known for her photography, and this week revealed she was "honoured" that her images of Holocaust survivors and their families will be included in a new Imperial War Museum exhibition.
However, in a June phone call with a finalist of her Hold Still photography contest, she revealed her children sometimes ask her to stop taking snaps.
She joked: “Everyone’s like, ‘Mummy, please stop taking photographs’.”
