Volunteers could revive scarce bog insect numbers

Volunteers could help to encourage a once-widespread wetland insect by taking part in a project to breed them at home.

Citizen Zoo, which recruits communities to get involved in local rewilding efforts, hopes to restore the bog bush cricket to habitats across East Anglia.

In the East of England, the insect survives in a handful of locations in Norfolk, near Aylsham, Sheringham and Holt.

"It almost always has short wings and cannot fly, so its ability to colonise suitable new sites is very limited - it just needs a little help," said entomologist Stuart Green.

Currently, the insect can be found at Beeston Common, Holt Lowes, Cawston Heath, Marsham Heath, Buxton Heath, Broadland Country Park, Horsford Heath and Swannington Upgate in Norfolk.

Citizen Zoo has already begun trialling a bog bush cricket breeding programme.

It hopes to establish a scientifically robust model to breed the species in captivity, which can then support future reintroductions into the wild and population recovery efforts.

The project draws upon the group's Hop of Hope citizen rewilding programme, which has helped restore more than 8,000 large marsh grasshoppers to wetlands in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire since 2018.

Elliot Newton, director of rewilding at Citizen Zoo, said: "We are incredibly excited to apply a similar methodology that has already delivered remarkable success with the large marsh grasshopper to a new species — the bog bush cricket."

But Green, who oversaw that recovery project, said the bog bush cricket would be more difficult to rear because it can be cannibalistic and has a longer, two-year life cycle.

"We will be testing a few methods that might get around these problems and allow us to rear significant numbers of the bush cricket for release into the wild," he said.

Suitable sites for the insect's reintroduction have yet to be chosen, but The Fens would be a suitable habitat.

"At a time when ecological decline can often leave people feeling powerless, community-led projects like this offer something vital – hope," Newton said.

"They show that local people can play a direct role in restoring nature and shaping a wilder future."

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