Reintroductions of the critically endangered pine hoverfly in the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Taylor, Helen R; Allott, Carl; Barrie, Eleanor; Elliott, Anne; Kortland, Kenny; Lindsay, Georgina; MacGowan, Iain; Mathers, Eileen; Sears, Jane; Sumpter, Amelie; Tompkins, Genevieve; Wiswell, Hayley

Reintroductions of the critically endangered pine hoverfly in the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Resource type

Book chapter

Creator (person)

Taylor, Helen R

Allott, Carl

Barrie, Eleanor

Elliott, Anne

Kortland, Kenny

Lindsay, Georgina

MacGowan, Iain

ORCID

Mathers, Eileen

Sears, Jane

Sumpter, Amelie

Tompkins, Genevieve

Wiswell, Hayley

Date published

2025

Abstract

The pine hoverfly (Blera fallax) is a Palearctic species listed as Least Concern on the IUCN global Red List, but Critically Endangered in the UK (Ball & Morris, 2014), being restricted to just one site: a forest patch in the Cairngorms National Park (CNP). Historical records suggest the species has always been range-restricted in the UK, with all records coming from within or near CNP. Reintroduction efforts for the species are currently focused on establishing additional populations in the Strathspey area of CNP. This work follows reintroduction attempts previously reported in this series (Rotheray, 2010), which unfortunately proved unsuccessful. Building on lessons from this initial attempt and following the IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and other Conservation Translocations and the Scottish Code for Translocations, we have established a new breeding and reintroduction programme for this species in Scotland.

Book title

GLOBAL CONSERVATION TRANSLOCATION PERSPECTIVES: 2025: Case studies from around the globe - 8th edition, IUCN SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group

Editor

Soorae, Pritpal S