FORESTRY officials have created suntraps in one of the region's beauty spots to prevent a member of the ant family from becoming extinct.

The Northern Hairy Wood Ant needs sunlight.

Small numbers of the creatures were discovered by ex-forester and ecologist Gordon Simpson in the 1970s at the Forest and he was puzzled by the colony's failure to expand.

It wasn't until a number of trees were felled in the forest that Mr Simpson discovered the population of ants would grow if exposed to sunlight.

The 71-year-old, who still plays an active part in surveying Hamsterley Forest, has since asked foresters to fell one or two trees surrounding the nests in order to give the ants a better chance of survival.

He said: "We used to have around half a mile of ants nests and now we have at least two miles.

"I asked Mark Herbertson if there was a chance that we could fell some trees to create suntraps to help the ants and he has done a marvellous job. We will be keeping a close eye on them. The fact that they are restricted to just a handful of locations in the North makes these ants very precious.''