This Grasshopper Is Hopping Back to Its Natural Habitat

Thanks to volunteer zookeepers who bred Britain’s largest grasshopper in captivity, the endangered species may now return to its original habitat in the wetlands of East Anglia.

“A lot of sites where it once was have now been restored so it’s a really good candidate for reintroduction,” says Lucas Ruzo, the chief executive of Citizen Zoo, a social enterprise that promotes rewilding and community engagement. “We hope it could be a symbol for wider landscape restoration and this project will encourage a more proactive approach to conservation which is often lacking.”

The elusive insect needs help from citizens since it cannot go back to its former strongholds on its own – it rarely travels more than 50 meters – for the fragments of wetland are too isolated from one another. Through the reintroduction project licensed by Natural England, the government’s conservation agency, 2,152 hoppers have been released in the countryside. An additional 1,000 will be released in two secret sites by the end of summer. Next year, more grasshoppers will be released in two wetland sites in Cambridgeshire.