Financial Times FT.com

Rare butterfly returns years after extinction

By Clive Cookson, Science Editor

Published: June 16 2009 00:02 | Last updated: June 16 2009 00:07

The large blue butterfly, which became extinct in Britain 30 years ago, has returned in large numbers after being reintroduced from Sweden in a secret conservation project.

Today large blues are present on 33 sites in south-west England, from chalk downs to railway embankments, and are spreading across the Polden Hills.

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