Studies have shown a massive decline in butterflies in the UK as the climate warms. Some species have been able to fly north but many are unable to make the journey because of distance or human development and are in danger of dying out.

Now a new study by Durham University shows human beings could help by transporting the insects to cooler climes in the north.

The researchers caught Marbled White and Small Skipper butterflies in North Yorkshire and transported them in soft cages to safe areas in County Durham and Northumberland.

Eight years later the research, published in Conservation Letters, showed both species thriving in their new home.

Professor Brian Huntley from Durham University said other species at risk of climate change could also be moved.

"The success of the assisted colonisation demonstrates for the first time that moving species to areas identified as newly climatically-suitable can play a role in wildlife conservation," he said.

Richard Fox, of UK charity Butterfly Conservation, who collaborated in the research, said it was especially important for butterflies which are sensitive to climate but cannot move fast enough as the world warms and are often surrounded by human development.

"Britain's butterflies are in steep decline largely due to the destruction and fragmentation of their habitats by human activity such as intensive farming and forestry, and urban development," he said.

"The warming climate that Britain has experienced over the past few decades should have been a blessing for butterflies, but in reality few have benefited.

"Research, using millions of butterfly sightings collected by our volunteer observers, has suggested that even those butterflies that have spread northwards and colonised new territory as a result of climate change, have been held back by lack of habitat to act as stepping stones or green corridors."

(By Louise Gray, Telegraph, 17/02/2009)