"The dwarf crow has spots on one side, the blue-branded king crow has spots on both sides, the double-branded crow has three spots, and the striped blue crow has randomly scattered spots," recites the instructor to the accompaniment of a film presentation at the visitor center of the Maolin National Scenic Area. Some 20 students are learning how to identify the four types of crow butterflies and the eight types of tiger butterflies which can be found in the purple butterfly valleys. They are also learning about what the butterflies eat and the places they frequent. The teachers, who come in from such places as Taipei and Tainan, make a real effort to teach the class. The students, diligent despite having no previous knowledge of the subject, soon learn the basics of identifying butterflies.
This is the first batch of volunteer nature guides to come and follow the butterflies as they flutter along the Maolin gorge. Future plans include bringing in volunteers from such organizations as the Butterfly Conservation Society of Taiwan and the Conservation Society of National Taiwan University, as well as schoolteachers, to carry out investigations or simply act as nature guides for the purple butterfly valleys.
"It's the same every year," says Shih Kuei-cheng (known locally as "Daddy Butterfly"), the director of the tourism department of the Maolin Township Office. "If not for all the volunteers--some of whom stay for 20 or 30 days at a time--I really don't know what we'd do."
"Our local youth know the importance of the purple butterflies, but due to the pressures of earning a living there's only so much they can do," says Chen Cheng, a member of the Rukai tribe who runs a bed and breakfast in Maolin Township's Te-en Valley. Having promoted the concept of ecotourism for several years now, he's found that the main problem is the lack of local nature guides, as it's not easy to get the local youth to volunteer.
Chen Cheng is the main promoter of ecotourism in Maolin Township. He has a one-hectare farm in the Chokou River Valley, which runs the entire length of Maolin Township. In this quiet and beautiful setting he has a large campground and grows a variety of indigenous trees and plants, including burny vine (Trophis scandens), Taiwan fig (Ficus formosana), and Japanese prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum ailanthoides). Early each morning, Taiwan blue magpies come to eat papaya. The butterflies flutter about to the chirps of birds and the cries of insects in the woods. When all is quiet late at night you can even catch a glimpse of a pangolin (scaly anteater) and hear a yellow croaker owl hooting off in the distance.
"It was Chan Chia-lung who got me interested in environmental work," says Chen, who is a member of the Rukai nobility and is educational director at the Maolin grade school. For some years he has been diligently collecting records of Rukai culture and compiling local educational materials. Chen was an early researcher of the butterflies of Maolin. After enlisting the assistance of local youths he established an association for the convenience of contacting governmental organizations. One of those youths was Chen Cheng, who thus happened to find a new direction in life.
Of the three main villages of Maolin, traditional Rukai culture is most intact in Tona, which has been in the same location for 400 years. Tona still has a few traditional stone houses, a major attraction of a visit to Maolin.