Exciting Developments with Fisher’s Estuarine Moth
Conservation Programme
In March 2010, batches of eggs from Colchester Zoo’s breeding programme for the Fisher’s Estuarine Moth, one of Britain’s rarest moths, were introduced onto Essex Wildlife Trust’s Abbott’s Hall Farm at Great Wigborough following five years of habitat management and onto farmland at Thorpe-le-Soken in a bid to help secure its future.
These sites were surveyed in July for the caterpillar’s feeding signs and in September for the adult moth. We are pleased to announce that, since the release of these eggs, good numbers of feeding signs and moths have been recorded at both release sites.
The sightings of these moths are a culmination of efforts by Tendring District Council, Colchester Zoo, Natural England, Essex Wildlife Trust, Essex Biodiversity Project and Writtle College who have been working together as part of a special conservation programme involving the Fisher’s Estuarine Moth.
This work has been in progress for over ten years and has involved understanding what the moth needs to survive and how we can create new areas of habitat to ensure its long-term survival. We have now put this knowledge into practice and have been working with farmers and landowners to create habitat in suitable locations through Natural England’s Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme.
The breeding programme has taken place at Colchester Zoo since 2008 in order to provide a readily available supply of eggs for newly-created habitat sites around north-east Essex. The eggs initially originated from Skipper’s Island Nature Reserve, an Essex Wildlife Trust site, which holds the core population of the moth. These eggs were collected under licence from Natural England to enable the commencement of the breeding programme.
The caterpillars emerge in spring, with Colchester Zoo retaining some for the breeding programme and any additional caterpillars and eggs released onto the new sites. To date, eggs have been released in 2009 and 2010 and we plan to continue such releases into the future.
The breeding programme at Colchester Zoo was again successful this autumn, with emergent females laying 12 batches of eggs. With each batch containing over 100 eggs, there will be plenty of eggs to release onto the new sites in 2011.
With 20 new sites of the caterpillar’s sole food plant, Hog’s Fennel, created, it is essential that the breeding programme continues for years to come to populate this new habitat.
In addition to the breeding and release programme, survey work conducted by Leon Woodrow of Tendring District Council, has also shown a high number of moths recorded at existing sites, evidence of the spread of the moths within such sites and even sightings of the moth’s caterpillar feeding signs and of an adult moth on Hog’s Fennel plants away from the existing colonies, which have not been populated by the breeding programme.
This exciting news shows that the moth is capable of extending its range naturally, and, coupled with the supplementation from the breeding programme, we hope that the outlook for the Fisher’s Estuarine Moth will be more favourable into the future.
The whole programme is being funded and overseen by Natural England and the work leads on from research and habitat creation work conducted by Dr Zoe Ringwood.
Fisher’s Estuarine Moth is restricted mainly to Skipper’s Island in Walton Backwaters and to small areas of sea walls and coastal grassland in North East Essex. Essex Wildlife Trust and Essex Biodiversity Project have been managing habitat on the island to secure the moth’s core population for a number of years to counteract the effects of sea level rise. It is mainly found in low-lying areas at risk of inundation by the sea.
Areas of the moth’s habitat are being lost each year and it is likely that the threat will become even more severe due to rises in sea level.
To secure its future it has been necessary to create a landscape-scale network of sites on higher ground – away from the threat of flooding.
Funding has been made available through Natural England’s Higher Level Stewardship Scheme to encourage farmers and landowners to create areas of habitat for the species on their land as part of the conservation programme. The creation of habitat has to date involved planting over 35,000 Hog’s Fennel plants. Much of this planting has been conducted by Writtle College students and conservation volunteers.
Research and Conservation Director at Colchester Zoo, Rebecca Perry says “We are delighted by the continuing success of this project. A captive population provided by Colchester Zoo will ensure that there is a readily available supply of these moths to introduce into new sites when conditions are suitable and it will mean that small and vulnerable naturally occurring populations are not relied upon for this supply in the future.
Dr Zoe Ringwood from Natural England says
‘This project is a fine example of putting scientific knowledge into practice to conserve a threatened species. It is absolutely fantastic that after ten years of hard work and dedication we are now at a stage where Fisher’s Estuarine Moth is colonising new areas of habitat that have been created for it. The aim of securing the long-term future of the species by establishing a sustainable network of populations away from the threats of rising sea-levels is now within sight. This is a reflection of partnership working and particularly the commitment of a number of individuals.’
Mark Iley from Essex Biodiversity Project says
‘This is a tremendous collaborative effort and we are delighted to be part of it and to record the first Fishers estuarine moth from the specially created and managed habitat at Essex Wildlife Trusts Abbotts Hall Farm site.
The work at Skippers Island is proceeding well and the habitat improvements there will safeguard the core population of Fishers estuarine moth in the medium term until the new sites have matured’