The maker of a farming simulation game is helping wildlife experts in the Highlands save one of the UK’s rarest species, the pine hoverfly.
Marvelous Europe Limited, publisher of Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (SOSPOOT), has donated £20,000 towards a conservation breeding programme at the Highland Wildlife Park.
The support is an unusual element of the game’s launch on Friday on the Nintendo Switch in Europe and Australia.
In the game, players begin their farming journey in a pine forest and must work alongside nature to breathe life into their farm.
“By saving the pine hoverfly, we hope to bring a bit of the game world alive, while also helping to save an endangered UK species from the very real threat of extinction”, the company said.
The species plays an important role in the ecosystem as a pollinator but is so rare in the UK that no one has seen an adult pine hoverfly in the wild for more than seven years.
Marvelous Europe will also raise awareness of the conservation project by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which runs the wildlife park, with a Europe-wide competition for the gaming industry.
This will start with a Twitch live stream from comedian, games journalist and co-host of parenting podcast Scummy Mummies, Ellie Gibson, on Friday when participants will get the chance to name the hoverflies.
The Cairngorms National Park is the species’ last remaining habitat in the UK and new facilities at the wildlife park will include a larval rearing room, space for the adult hoverflies to fly and mate, and preparation space for staff to prepare flowers the hoverflies need for food.
“With the money from Marvelous Europe and other donors, including The National Geographic Society, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Forestry and Land Scotland, and NatureScot, it is hoped that this conservation breeding programme will help bring the critically endangered pine hoverfly back from the edge of extinction,” the company added.
“It may be small, but the pine hoverfly is an important pollinator, a role shared by many of the world’s endangered invertebrates.
“The breeding programme is pioneering in its own right, developing techniques that could turn the fortunes of other species that are vital to delicate ecosystems around the world.”
“Participants in the competition will get the chance to have a tangible impact on the species’ future, naming the hoverflies that will save the species, and winners will have a lasting impact, naming the new facilities that will keep this vital programme going for years to come.”
Dr Helen Taylor, RZSS field conservation programme manager, added: “This funding is a substantial contribution to our pine hoverfly conservation efforts.
“The new facility we are about to start work on will be a massive help toward giving this critically endangered species the boost in numbers it so desperately needs.
“Marvelous’ enthusiasm for the project has been fantastic to see and it is wonderful that a species as small as pine hoverfly has helped attract the attention of such a high profile company.”
