Sarah Duddigan with the rare Isle of Wight butterfly the Glanville fritillary. Picture by Peter Boam.
SLIDESHOW
A MASTERS graduate from the Isle of Wight is helping to log the movements of one of the rarest butterflies in Britain.
Sarah Duddigan, 22, of Queens Road, Freshwater, is spending the summer on the clifftops of Compton Bay catching and marking the Glanville fritillary, which lives in isolated colonies on the Isle of Wight.
Sarah, who gained a masters degree in environmental pollution from Reading University, marks the butterflies she discovers on the wings with a solvent-free pen and at the same time logs where she finds them on a GPS. She can then discover when she recaptures butterflies if they have moved on from their original colony.
The project, which is supported by the Isle of Wight Natural History Society and ferry firm, Wightlink, looks at how the population of the rare butterfly is responding to climate change.
Sarah told the County Press she hoped to begin a career in the environmental sector, possibly as a research assistant.
She said: "I was trying to get some experience and this seemed like such a fantastic project to get involved in."
Robin Curtis, of the Institute of Zoology, London, who is heading up the project, said the aim of the research was to find out how the Glanville fritillary, a particularly sensitive butterfly, responded the changes in its climate and habitat.
He said: "Despite a recent increase in global temperatures, which should benefit most butterflies, two thirds of British butterflies have continued to decline.
"The aim of this research is to assess how one particularly sensitive butterfly is responding to changes in climate and habitat. Populations fluctuate dramatically between years and we are trying to work out why."
Reporter: davidn@iwcpmail.co.uk