“Numbers of one of Scotland’s rarest plants have more than trebled on a hill in central Scotland following restoration work,” reports the BBC.
Sticky catchfly is a nationally rare species with fewer than 18 populations scattered across Britain. Around 10,000 flowering stems of the plant were counted by volunteers during a three-day survey on Dumyat in the Ochil Hills – an increase from 3,000 in 2013.
The plants have multiplied in number due to a nature restoration program that includes sheep removal:
The plant has a long-recorded history in Scotland and is said to have been admired by James VI on the crags of Arthur’s Seat. It can be identified by its pink flowers and sticky stem that prevents herbivorous insects such as aphids from climbing up it. However its numbers have declined and disappeared from many of its former locations due to overgrazing and gorse encroachment.
The conservation work has also benefited the rare Northern Brown Argus butterfly, which was seen on Dumyat for the first time in 100 years in 2023. The habitat changes for sticky catchfly also supported the common rockrose plant which the butterfly’s caterpillars feed on.
A bird extinct in Europe recently made a comeback. Sturgeons recently returned to Sweden, a century after they disappeared from Swedish waters. In Spain, the Iberian lynx is no longer an endangered species.
In 2023, a baby beaver was born in London, the first beaver birth there in 400 years. And carnivorous plants were reintroduced to English wetlands.
Wild horses recently returned to Kazakhstan after an absence of 200 years. Florida’s manatees have rebounded to their highest number in years. Sea turtles are proliferating, with sea turtle nests tripling in Florida. An Asian antelope declared extinct in Bangladesh is making a comeback.
