Conservationists All a Flutter at Bid to Save Rare Butterfly

The sight of these two butterflies mating on a Westcountry nature reserve will bring hope to conservationists.

For the High Brown Fritillary is one of the country’s rarest butterflies – and numbers have dwindled dramatically.

Now a pounds44,000 conservation project has been set up to help protect them. The Devon Wildlife Trust is beginning work on the habitat management scheme this month at the charity’s Dunsford nature reserve, where only around 30 of the species survive.

The scheme is expected to last for the next three years. The colony is the only one of the species left in the Teign Valley, one of only 50 sites in the country which support the rare insect.

The High Brown Fritillary has seen the largest decline of any British butterfly species over recent decades. The larva of the species feed on violets so bracken will be managed to encourage more to grow and woodland glades will be opened up. The money, which has been awarded by Biffa Waste Management, will also fund an extensive monitoring programme to check how the work is progressing.

Devon Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves officer, Andrew Baker, said: “This is such an important species of butterfly that it is vital that we do all we can to protect and enhance its habitats here in Devon.

“We only count on average around 30 individual butterflies in any one season here at Dunsford, so over the next three years, we hope there will be a significant increase following this work.”

For more information, visit www.devonwildlifetrust.org

(c) 2008 Western Morning News, The Plymouth (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.