Have you heard of the chequered skipper butterfly? If you haven’t, now’s the time to get clued up. Here in the UK the chequered skipper is the insect of the moment, having been brought back to England after 40 years’ of extinction.
The chequered skipper butterfly used to be a common sight in the damp woods and fens of the East Midlands, particularly Rockingham Forest. In 1976 however, it was declared completely extinct in England, although a few survived in Scotland.
The wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation used a donor population from Belgium to start increasing the numbers in 2018 in Rockingham Forest. And now, after five years of hard work, the charity has declared success in bringing the species back from the brink.
One of the main factors that enabled the charity to attempt the project was the help of landowners, including Forestry England and Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust. These groups worked with Butterfly Conservation to change how they manage the woodlands, with 23 hectares of vegetation used to create habitats that would allow the Chequered Skipper to expand and thrive.
Scientists also ran computer simulations to model the effect that climate change could have on Rockingham Forest, projecting their predictions to 2070. They found that rising temperatures and increased rainfall could actually prove beneficial to chequered skippers, suggesting long-term success for the project.
The next stage involves monitoring the new population and determining whether they are breeding. The project does this by capturing butterflies, marking them and taking photographs, then comparing them to other captured butterflies, to see how many new butterflies are present.
The charity’s project manager, Susannah O’Riordan, praised the conservation results: ‘We’ve never carried out a project exactly like this before and it was a real experiment, but it’s been a success. We have brought this wonderful butterfly back to England.’ She hopes that the project will inspire and inform future introductions, helping undo years of damage done to the natural environment.
In September 2024, Butterfly Conservation declared a Butterly Emergency in the UK after the worst-ever results of its annual Big Butterfly Count. Although the chequered skipper project has been a success, there’s clearly still a lot to be done.
Did you see that Folkestone is the UK’s best place to visit in 2025, according to Time Out?
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.