“Thousands of milkweed butterflies are killed on the highway during their migration from southern Taiwan to the north every spring”
Taiwan will cordon off part of a highway to create a safe passage for a massive seasonal butterfly migration in the coming days, an official said yesterday.
In late March every year, the milkweed butterflies – which are indigenous to the island and have distinct white dots on purple-brown wings – migrate from southern Taiwan to the north, where they lay eggs and die.
The young butterflies then fly south every November to a warm mountain valley near the city of Kaohsiung to escape the winter cold in the north.
Research conducted by I-Shou University estimated that thousands of these butterflies are killed on the freeway each spring.
For the first time, a 600m stretch of highway in southern Taiwan’s Yunlin County will be sealed off for three hours from April 3 to April 5 to protect the insects, said Mr Lee Tai-ming, head of the National Freeway Bureau.
The authorities will set up nets to make the butterflies fly higher and avoid passing cars, he said.
Ultraviolet lights will be installed to guide the insects across a highway overpass. The measure which will cost NT$1 million (S$46,000) may lead to traffic jams but it is worth doing, said Mr Lee
“Human beings need to co-exist with the other species even if they are tiny butterflies,” he said.
Taiwan, which is known as the Kingdom of Butterflies, is home to more than 400 species of butterflies.
A tenth of the species can be found only on the island.
Highway to be closed – for the butterflies
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