CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY
Bathed in spring sunshine, thousands of purple crow butterflies alight in the woods near Pingding in south-central Taiwan to feed on nectar on a recent Sunday, gathering strength before continuing on their long journey back to their breeding grounds in the north.
Guided by their teachers, young students from the area concentrate on recording the number of the insects passing by. At times, the teachers catch the delicate creatures with nets and quickly tag their wings with an identifying mark before setting them free.
'The "capture and release"strategy is part of our long-term campaign to track the species' migratory routes for educational and conservation purposes,said Huang Hsi-pei, academic affairs director of Chengkung Elementary School in Pingding village, Yunlin County.
This grassroots educational drive is a welcome change from previous decades, when the butterfly kingdom-as Taiwan is known -was a killing field for the colorful winged creatures during their seasonal migrations.
The lack of interest in conservation led to the extinction of two precious species -king crow and tailed cupid -in the 1960s, but today, butterfly preservation is a high enough priority that even Taiwan's freeway bureau has blocked off freeway sections to prevent the purple crows from being squashed by passing cars.
Conservationists would like to see even more efforts by the government, but they said efforts by the freeway bureau and programs such as those conducted by the elementary school are a good start to a long-term solution -protecting the butterflies-natural habitat and making butterfly conservation a widespread public concern.
The purple crow butterflies provide an example of how vulnerable fragile insects are to human encroachment on their natural habitats and how a little effort by government and society can make a big difference.
"Butterflies are such delicate creatures that once you destroy the plants they rely on, they have little chance of survival,"said Chan Chia-lung, an entomologist-turned-conservationist who won an award in Japan in 2008 for his long-term observation of the species.
After years of extensive tracking by conservation experts and volunteers, it was discovered that purple crow butterflies spend the winter in the island's warmer southern region to escape the winter cold in the north.
In October each year, instinct draws the butterflies to take refuge in low-lying valleys on the two sides of the southern foothills of Taiwan's Central Mountain Range, most notably Maolin in Kaohsiung County and Dawu in Taitung County, where they winter until March.
