The Guardian: “How maverick rewilders are trying to turn back the tide of extinction”

Over the last 70 years, 98% of wildflower meadows in England and Wales have been destroyed; three-quarters of ponds and heaths have vanished; half the remaining fragments of ancient woods have been obliterated. The creatures inside this habitat have gone too: since 1970, more than half of Britain’s farmland birds have disappeared, while a quarter of mammals are endangered and three-quarters of butterfly species have declined. Overall one in 10 species are threatened with extinction; 500 species have already disappeared from England. Most alarmingly, this dramatic loss of biodiversity has accelerated in the last decade. During the same period, government funding for British wildlife and the environment has been cut by 30%.

Can one individual do anything about an extinction crisis caused by the way we live, farm and build? White is doing something. For almost all of his 61 years, he has laboured mostly alone; for the last 10 years, he has been breeding native butterflies from his modest terraced house in the East Midlands for release across the country. He is part of a small, scattered band of secret breeders – or “introductionists” as they prefer – who have taken it on themselves to bring back wild species that have fallen victim to what one nature writer calls “the great thinning” of non-human life.

Patrick Barkham

Wonderful initiative in the UK from a small group of passionate people, working to introduce locally extinct butterflies back into the environment. While I admire their commitment to this worthy cause, I am unsure that their efforts will make a noticeable impact in the long term. The major issue behind the disappearance of these species is habitat decline. As long as this is not properly addressed, the butterflies will not survive for more than a couple of seasons, and new populations would have to be periodically reintroduced in favorable areas.

A purple emperor butterfly. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Another issue is the reduced genetic variability of these artificially bred insects. The article mentions that White bred the mazarine blue from four ageing butterflies smuggled in from France. With such a small number of progenitors, the offspring will have similar genetic makeup, leaving them vulnerable to diseases, pathogens, and changes in local conditions, another factor that could lead to a quick population collapse.