A Dorset wildlife charity has made a major breakthrough by reintroducing a butterfly previously extinct in England.

East Lulworth-based Butterfly Conservation has released a number of Chequered Skipper butterflies at a secret location, working alongside the Forestry Commission. The species had previously been missing from England for more than 40 years after falling into extinction in the country in 1976.

It is anticipated that the butterflies released by Butterfly Conservation will mate and lay the foundations of a new English population of Chequered Skipper in the forest.

The ambitious reintroduction effort took place at a location in Rockingham Forest in Northamptonshire as part of the conservation project Back from the Brink, which brings together a number of conservation and wildlife organisations to combat extinction and save endangered species.

Back from the Brink is made possible by the National Lottery and People’s Postcode Lottery, and aims to save 20 species from extinction, as well as giving a boost to over 200 more through 19 projects spanning the country.

Always scarce, the Chequered Skipper, became extinct in England in 1976 as a result of habitat loss following changes in woodland management, with a decline in coppicing and management of long, narrow tracks and an increase in conifer plantations unsuitable for the butterfly.

In England the butterfly was historically found in a band of woodlands and limestone grassland from Oxfordshire to Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

Although the Chequered Skipper is found in parts of Scotland, conservationists always hoped to reintroduce it to England if suitable habitat conditions could be recreated.

Reintroduction trials took place in the mid-1990s, with the data gathered helping to provide vital information ahead of the current major reintroduction attempt.

The Back from the Brink project has enabled parts of the butterfly’s former stronghold, Rockingham Forest, to be restored to ideal conditions with wide, flower-filled rides.

Butterfly Conservation ecologists travelled to Belgium to collect Chequered Skipper adults from the Fagne-Famenne region in the south of the country, where they are widespread, with the help of Belgian experts.

The butterflies, a mix of males and females, were then taken across the Channel and transferred to Rockingham, where they were placed in release cages overnight ahead of their release.

The reintroduction is the first of a number of releases involving the Dorset charity that will take place at sites across Rockingham Forest over the next three years with the hope of building a large, resilient and sustainable population of Chequered Skippers across the whole landscape.