“We imported 363 eggs, from which the first caterpillars to feed on live plants – stonecrops, without which their reproduction would be impossible, began to hatch in special aviaries. This year, we may be able to get thousands of germs from this endangered insect, which wants we grow it in the Mountains of the Giants, where it became extinct in the middle of the last century,” explains David íp from Jaroměř station.

“The germs of this internationally protected species were never legally brought into the Czech Republic. Their transportation from the rescue kennel in Poland was made possible thanks to extensive international cooperation,” says coordinator of the Czech part of the project Tereza Macečková.

The red-eyed ash, named after the Greek sun god Apollo Parnassius Apollo, survives in the Czech Republic only in the Moravian-Silesian region of tramberk, where the population was restored 40 years ago.

“The population is still here, but recently it has decreased drastically,” said Zdeněk Fric of the Entomological Institute of the Czech Republic’s Academy of Sciences.

Thanks to the EU-funded international LifeApollo project, red-eyed ash with a strong red eye on the wings is also restored in the Slovak White Carpathians and the Austrian Alps in parallel with the Giant Mountains.

“Red-eyed ash is considered an icon of mountain nature protection because of its rarity,” adds Robin Böhnisch, director of Krkonoše National Park.

According to conservationists, the butterfly could be tamed in the natural environment of the rocky mountainsides on the sides of the Czech and Polish Giant Mountains within the next six years. “Poland has not been more successful so far. We hope that by combining the two efforts we will achieve promising results,” p anticipates.

For locations where ash trees are expected to be planted, conservationists must first return to the original form in which butterflies once lived. Preparations include pruning trees and restoring butterfly habitat previously degraded by unscrupulous agriculture and pesticides.

The resurgence of the red-eyed ash represents not only the restoration of endangered insects, but also the revival of habitats, in which these butterflies serve as the so-called umbrella species. According to conservationists, caring for Jason and his natural environment will also help other sensitive species.

The red-eyed Jason, named in 1758 by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, still survives in the mountainous regions of Slovakia, Austria, Germany or Portugal and almost all of Asia.