High up in the wooded mountains of Bhutan flutter two species of swallowtail – the Bhutan Glory and Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory. Both are striking black and white butterflies with vibrant red and yellow markings that give the appearance of eyes. In 2019, the IUCN Red List considered Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory Bhutanitis ludlowi (which is Bhutan’s national butterfly) to be Endangered, so the Swallowtail and Birdwing Butterfly Trust sought to find out more about this little-known species.
In August 2023, we funded Sonam Dorji, a local entomologist and filmmaker who has been enthusiastically pursuing ground-breaking studies on these spectacular butterflies, to carry out a project to find out more about the Bhutan Glories and to raise awareness of their conservation needs.
Sonam, having discovered an area where both species of Bhutan Glory fly together, has been working with the local community in that area to educate people about the butterflies and their conservation, creating activities and events for people to engage with the work, as well as supporting local people to generate income from conservation efforts. Sonam has just this month completed work on his groundfloor classroom which will be used as a space to teach young people about their local wildlife.
At the same time, Sonam is working on a film about the two species to generate even greater awareness of these iconic species across Bhutan and beyond. Sonam has already captured fantastic images and footage of the two Bhutanitis species at different stages of their development and is working on more as the warmer weather returns.
As well as the Bhutan Glories, Sonam is also on the lookout for the rare Kaiser-I-Hind (Teinopalpus imperialis), which is known to occur in the region in sparse populations. We hope his search is successful and that we can discover more about this important species.
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