Yunlin County’s Linnei Township (林內) is currently holding a festival to celebrate the migration of Taiwanese milkweed butterflies.
The nation’s four species of milkweed butterflies (Euploea) migrate northward from southern Taiwan during March or April every year and are usually blackish brown in color with metallic purple scales and white spots on their wings.
The insects spend the winter in the valleys of southern Taiwan, mostly in Greater Kaohsiung’s Maolin District (茂林) and Taitung County’s Dawu Township (大武).
Photo: Chan Shih-hung, Taipei Times
During migration the butterflies pass through Linnei township in early April, the office said, adding that the butterflies have arrived earlier this year due to a relatively warm winter.
Volunteers counted more than 200 butterflies per minute flying through the town during peak times, the office said.
Researchers have found that a section of the Formosa Freeway (National Freeway No. 3), between kilometer markers 251 and 253, is a hotspot where milkweed butterflies pass through in large numbers during migrating season, so the National Freeway Bureau has set up a protection net to prevent them from being run over. It has since 2007 even closed the freeway’s northbound outside lanes during peak days of the migration.
Following an opening ceremony yesterday, Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) and township Mayor Chiou Shih-wen (邱世文) invited visitors to shout out: “I love butterflies and I am against nuclear power,” as an oath to protect the butterflies’ natural environment from the risks of radioactive contamination.
A street parade was held to celebrate the festival, which included dozens of girls in ballet dresses with sparkling fake antennas and wings, and boys in scout uniforms and butterfly-shaped paper decorations on their caps.
A series of events, including customized stamp making, butterfly and ecology observance trips, performances for children, 3D art displays, are to take place today and next weekend at the township.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard