\n The Wall Brown butterfly, last seen at Raw Nook Nature Reserve in 2009, was discovered by Martyn Priestley, field officer for the Low Moor and Oakenshaw Wildlife Conservation Group.\n<\/p>\n
\n The rare sighting in Low Moor could indicate a small but hopeful change for the Wall Brown, a butterfly that has suffered long-term decline nationally and is classified as a priority conservation species by the UK government.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Priestley said: “I was showing a conservation group around the area and one of the party said ‘oh, what’s this butterfly?’\n<\/p>\n
\n Raw Nook Nature Reserve (Image: Martyn Priestley)\n<\/p>\n
\n “I looked at it in disbelief. Straight away I said, it’s a Wall Brown.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s unbelievable to be honest.”\n<\/p>\n
Last sighting in 2009<\/p>\n
\n Mr Priestley later checked his records and confirmed it had been 17 years since the butterfly was last seen in the area.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “I knew it was probably sort of 20 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I came back and looked at my records and it was the June 24, 2009 last sighting.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Prior to that, it bred regularly but it\u2019s in real trouble at the moment.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The other good news was that it was completely fresh, which suggests it\u2019s newly emerged from a caterpillar.”\n<\/p>\n
\n He said further work was needed to establish whether the species was breeding in the area again.\n<\/p>\n
Conservation work ‘a lifelong passion’<\/p>\n
\n Mr Priestley has been recording wildlife at Raw Nook for 50 years and has built a large database covering butterflies, insects and birds.\n<\/p>\n
\n His work in the area is part of a long-running effort to boost urban biodiversity.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “It\u2019s a lowland heath habitat down there, which is quite rare in an urban environment.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We do work down there purely for all the biodiversity.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Everything\u2019s for wildlife, to make the area better \u2013 and it\u2019s proven it.”\n<\/p>\n
Urban reserve is ‘gem for biodiversity’<\/p>\n
\n The Wall Brown\u2019s return is particularly significant given the reserve\u2019s location surrounded by industry in South Bradford.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Priestley said: “It\u2019s a real gem for biodiversity in an urban setting.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It just illustrates how important these sort of areas are.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The Wall Brown is identifiable by its pale orange and brown colouring and distinctive pattern of black eyespots on its wings. (Image: Pixabay)\n<\/p>\n
\n He said he was \u201cbaffled\u201d by the butterfly\u2019s sudden return.\n<\/p>\n
\n The discovery, he said, underlines the critical value of urban nature spaces.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Priestley said: “People shouldn\u2019t have to get in cars and travel for miles to see wildlife.\n<\/p>\n
\n “These urban nature reserves are vastly, vastly important for biodiversity in the area.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I think it shows that nature can work alongside industry.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wall Brown butterfly, last seen at Raw Nook Nature Reserve in 2009, was discovered by Martyn Priestley,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1142275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":["post-1142274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117075164925568574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1142274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1142275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1142274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1142274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1142274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}