National Trust to create UK sanctuary for endangered butterfly

Heddon Valley in Devon to be haven for high brown fritillary, supported by lottery funding

Steven Morris

Wed 24 Jan 2018 00.01 GMT

A beautiful wooded valley on the Devon coast is to be the focus of a project to save the UK’s most endangered butterfly – the high brown fritillary.

Conservationists believe changes to woodland management, such as the abandonment of coppicing, and climate change have contributed to the steep decline of the large, powerful, fast-flying butterfly over the last 50 years.

The National Trust has been given £100,000 by the People’s Postcode Lottery to improve 150 acres of lowland heath and wood pasture at Heddon Valley on the north Devon coast as a habitat for the butterfly.

Other butterflies including the heath fritillary, and birds such as the nightjar and the Dartford warbler will also benefit.

Matthew Oates, a National Trust nature expert and butterfly enthusiast, said: “We’ve witnessed a catastrophic decline of many native butterfly populations in recent decades but initiatives like this can really help to turn the tide.”

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Prairie butterfly sliding towards extinction

Rarer than a Panda! Researchers working to save endangered butterfly

July 2013. Researchers from both Canada and the United States are rushing to figure out why a small, brown and orange winged butterfly is dying out quickly.

 (Courtesy Erik Runquist/Minnesota Zoo)

Massive population crash

Listed as an endangered species in Manitoba in 2012 and listed nationally as threatened, the Poweshiek skipperling butterfly population has dropped dramatically throughout North America. In Canada, it is known to only inhabit 17 fields in south-eastern Manitoba, primarily on the Nature Conservancy of Canada's Tall Grass Prairie Natural Area. In the United States, the closest population appears only in a handful of sites in Iowa and North Dakota.

Researchers from the University of Winnipeg, Minnesota Zoo and University of Michigan are now just outside of Winnipeg performing valuable research on this declining species. Since the adult butterfly is active for only two to three weeks, researchers are using this critical time to collect information on the Poweshiek skipperling's genetics and genetic diversity to save this important butterfly from extinction.

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