Highland cattle save butterflies as nature fans celebrate breakthrough year in Scottish reserve

Butterfly buffs have travelled hundreds of miles to see a thriving rare highlands flutterer after officials used cattle to save dozens of species at Scotland’s first butterfly reserve.

The Chequered Skipper, which can only be spotted within 25 miles of Fort William and is noted as one of Scotland’s “nationally-important” breeds, has been reborn at the Allt Mhuic nature reserve.

Teams from Forestry Commission Scotland and Butterfly Conservation and Forest Research thought a six-year battle to boost butterfly numbers at the Loch Arkaig beauty spot had failed when a conservation programme using 15 young Highland Cattle proved unsuccessful in 2009.

But a crucial decision to change the feeding pattern of the livestock resulted in the number of Chequered Skippers almost doubling, including sightings of the first ever male Skipper territories.

“The cattle are doing a great job and are thriving on the area, proving that the traditional Highland breed was the right choice for our conservation work on this site,” explained the Commission’s Kenneth Knott.

“The decision was taken to change the grazing regime on the lower slopes from summer to winter grazing, and early indications suggest that the change is benefiting butterfly numbers.

“As the season has progressed at least five species on the site have shown improvements in numbers, which is excellent news.

“That early success led us to hold a couple of open days earlier in the year and we had around 100 people show up from all over the country. We even had some people who had travelled up from Peterborough – they told us their local pub was called the Chequered Skipper, but I don’t think that was the only reason they came.”

On-site experts are now waiting for the end-of-year results to get a fuller picture.

“The whole site looks really good and the results so far are fantastic,” said butterfly recorder Tony Millard.

“The introduction of the cattle has made a real difference to the quality of the site, making the conditions and the habitat much more amenable to several butterfly species.

“An early success like this is really encouraging and we hope we are on course to see further improvement next year. It’s a great example of how more natural land management techniques can bring additional benefits."