Rare butterfly reintroduced 50 years after going extinct!
Experts celebrate revival of rare species 50 years after it went extinct: ‘Very exciting’
(Although this was in England,
“This project shows us that restoring wildlife is possible.”)
Published on TCD (TheCoolDown) Monday, January 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM EST by: Alyssa Ochs
A butterfly that became extinct in England has reemerged and is now thriving thanks to a successful breeding project.
As BirdGuides reported, ecologists brought a donor population of chequered skippers from Belgium to reestablish the species in its native habitat near Corby, Northamptonshire.
In England, the rare butterfly died out in 1976 because of changes in woodland management. In 2018, ecologists began working to rebuild its population.
Since then, they have imported 128 butterflies from Belgium and released them in two forest locations. Breeding has been highly successful, and over 350 butterflies have been counted, with their number increasing each year.
Butterfly Conservation oversaw the project and said the results were “very exciting,” per BirdGuides.
“This project shows us that restoring wildlife is possible, but only if we put in dedicated and sustained effort to tackle the reasons the species went extinct in the first place,” the charity’s chief scientist, Nigel Bourn, told BirdGuides.
Beyond the chequered skipper, this project exemplifies how to approach species reintroductions and conservation projects.
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