Large heath butterflies return to Manchester after 150 years

Lancashire Wildlife Trust has brought the species back to peatlands following a local extinction in the 19th century

Large heath butterflies are returning to peatlands in greater Manchester 150 years after they went locally extinct.

The acidic peat bogs and mosslands around Manchester and Liverpool were home to the country's biggest colonies of large heath butterflies - known as the Manchester argus" - but numbers plummeted as land was drained for agricultural land and peat extraction.