BBC News
By Giancarlo Rinaldi
Published
image captionThe pearl-bordered fritillary has seen a steady rise in numbers at Mabie Forest
A forest in the south of Scotland is seeing a rare butterfly thrive thanks to a surprising friend.
The distinctive Belted Galloway cattle are being used to help the pearl-bordered fritillary flourish.
The last full survey at Mabie Forest near Dumfries in 2019 found numbers had more than doubled on the previous year.
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has been using a range of methods to help the local colony - including letting the heavy cattle in to graze.
image copyrightFLS
It is as rare as the Scottish wildcat and even less common than the giant panda. But now efforts to protect a critically endangered insect from extinction have been boosted thanks to a brandnew breeding centre in the Highlands that has been described as a “game changer” for the species. The pine hoverfly (Blera fallax) is one of the UK’s rarest native insects. Known to be present in the wild at only one forest site in the Cairngorms National Park, the insect has not been seen in its native habitat in adult form for more than eight years. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) has led efforts to save the species since 2016, with a critical conservation breeding programme based at its Highland Wildlife Park (HWP) near Kingussie.
Extremely rare insect found in Cairngorms gives vital clues to habitat health heraldscotland.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldscotland.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
While Loch Lomond rangers are asking visitors to avoid nesting ospreys, further north in the Cairngorms the national park has issued similar warnings about capercaillies, Scotland’s largest ground-nesting bird, whose breeding season has just begun.
With the area’s pine forests home to about 80% of the UK’s depleted and fragile population of capercaillies, which are sensitive to disturbance, the Cairngorms National Park Authority has asked visitors to stick to waymarked paths and keep dogs on leads.
A common lizard is seen at the Muir of Dinnet nature reserve. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
David Pickett, a national reserve manager for NatureScot, will be watching the adders and lizards at Flanders Moss, in west Stirlingshire. “They’re not long out of hibernation and need to sunbathe to build up their resources,” he said. This is the time of year when male adders “dance”, entwining together as they compete to mate with females, and they can be very sensitive