![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/00251ba5-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nMoth swarms so thick they can blot out the stars are fluttering across Australia, heralding a migratory spectacle unseen since the creature’s brush with extinction nearly 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
The great migration of the Bogong moth was once a yearly feature of the Australian spring, the insects humming down the nation’s east coast in their billions as they searched for cooler climes.<\/p>\n
But drought, pesticides and habitat destruction triggered an unprecedented collapse that began in 2017, eventually wiping out an estimated 99.5% of the Bogong moth population.<\/p>\n
While vast clouds of flying bugs might not be everyone’s cup of tea, scientists have been delighted to find that the Bogongs are back.<\/p>\n
“There have been happy tears in my office because this is what nature should be,” said conservation biologist Marissa Parrott.<\/p>\n
“People are noticing those big swarms again. They can celebrate what I think is one of nature’s great spectacles.”<\/p>\n
In a good year, four billion moths or more would escape the inland heat to seek shelter in the alpine caves of eastern Australia.<\/p>\n
“So many Bogong moths would come through that they could block out the stars and the moon as they went overhead,” said Ms Parrott, from Zoos Victoria.<\/p>\n
Photos showed how the endangered moths clustered together so densely inside their caves, it was impossible to see the rock beneath.<\/p>\n
“They get up into the mountains and into these caves, where they make this beautiful tiling pattern,” said Western Sydney University insect researcher Eleanor Drinkwater.<\/p>\n
“They cover the walls in this very dense mat of moths.<\/p>\n
“They hang out there until the weather starts getting cooler, and they come back down to their breeding grounds.”<\/p>\n
Their migration has long fascinated scientists, who have puzzled over how they found their way on a journey they only ever make once.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Celestial navigation<\/p>\n
By placing a tether around captive moths and projecting stars on the wall, researchers last year showed how Bogongs used the Milky Way.<\/p>\n
They were the first invertebrates – a broad group of animals including spiders, snails and worms – shown to use celestial navigation for such long trips.<\/p>\n
Bogong moths are thought to help plants spread pollen and are also a key food source for the mountain pygmy possum, a critically endangered cave-dwelling marsupial.<\/p>\n
“They are very, very important to Australian ecosystems,” Ms Drinkwater said.<\/p>\n
Drawn towards the blazing stadium floodlights, Bogong swarms caused havoc at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.<\/p>\n
Forecasters warned that heavy rain was about to drench the event’s closing ceremony – only to realise the radar had picked up a cloud of Bogongs.<\/p>\n
While the Bogong migration continued in the years following the population crash, scientists were aghast at how few moths were making the journey.<\/p>\n
“People described going into the caves and finding barely any moths, and just kind of being in shock,” Ms Drinkwater said.<\/p>\n
Researchers are still working to better understand what contributed to the Bogong bounce-back, but believe a spate of wetter weather has helped.<\/p>\n
With a severe El Nino forecast to send temperatures soaring over summer, scientists hope the rebound is not short lived.<\/p>\n
“It’s great they’re back, and we’re really excited they’re back,” said Ms Drinkwater.<\/p>\n
“But we’re still worried about them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moth swarms so thick they can blot out the stars are fluttering across Australia, heralding a migratory spectacle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-790316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}