Purple crow butterflies rouse concern for the land

Despite the fact that Taiwan’s “purple treasure,” the purple crow butterfly, has seen a steady decrease year after year, there are few groups involved in its research and conservation. Thankfully, Li Ming-chong (李銘崇), the founder and chairman of Taiwan Purple Crow Butterfly Ecological Preservation Association, is striving to address its plight. Each year, Li Ming-chong takes a group of friends that work in environmental protection to carry out mark-release-recapture and other conservation activities in Taichung’s Dakeng, and Kaohsiung’s Maolin. Hopefully, Taiwanese people will begin to squarely face environmental issues and care for the land.

Unlike the United States and Mexico, which have been studying the monarch butterfly for the last ninety years and accrued extensive scientific data, Taiwanese research on the purple crow butterfly started late and is therefore insubstantial. Fortunately, heaven helps those who help themselves, and the association’s collaboration with the National Geographic Channel to produce the film “The Butterfly Code,” earned a special National Education Award in 2017. Furthermore, the association has invited scholars working on the monarch butterfly from the United States and on the tiger butterfly from Japan to join the study. Perhaps in years to come, Taiwan’s purple crow butterfly will finally begin to receive the attention it so rightly deserves.

以下為中文對照

台灣的紫色寶藏 — 「紫斑蝶」數量連年減少，而研究、保育紫斑蝶的團體卻寥寥無幾。李銘崇意識到這個保育問題，身為台灣紫斑蝶保育協會創辦人兼理事長的他，帶著一群環保志工出身的朋友，每年在台中大坑、高雄茂林之蝶谷進行標放和保育活動，希望台灣人能正視環保議題，共同關心我們的土地。

台灣研究紫斑蝶的資料極少，也較晚起步，不像美國、墨西哥研究帝王斑蝶近九十年，已有雄厚的科學數據。幸好皇天不負苦心人，協會與國家地理頻道合作的節目「蝴蝶密碼」，榮獲二〇一七年國家環境教育獎特優，並將邀請美國研究帝王斑蝶的學者、日本研究青斑蝶的學者共襄盛舉，也許在數年後，台灣的紫斑蝶就能受到更多人的重視。