Urban Havens to Save Delicate Butterfly Species

Gardens run by public, businesses and communities key to the butterflies' return

- Ang Qing

On the outskirts of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, one backyard quietly operates as a home, hospital and hospice for two of the Republic's most flamboyant swallowtail butterflies.

These are the common rose butterfly, which was voted the national butterfly in a 2015 contest held by Nature Society Singapore (NSS), and the common birdwing, the Republic's biggest butterfly.

Gardens that are initiated and run by members of the public, businesses and communities have been key to the resurgence of these delicate species, ecologists told The Straits Times.

In the "secret garden" off the Singapore Botanic Gardens, for example, butterfly conservationist Amy Tsang, who is in her mid-70s, and housekeeper Riza Burgos, 56, have created refuges for dozens of eggs and caterpillars of both species.

"None of us is trained in the field of butterfly conservation," said Ms Tsang, a retired civil servant. "But what we have in common is our deep love for creation's beautiful butterflies and a strong determination to see their survival in nature."

The common rose butterfly was once considered vulnerable to extinction, with fewer than 1,000 mature individuals in 2008.

But in May 2024, the common rose butterfly's situation was determined to be less dire, and it was assessed as near threatened. This means the species is approaching, but has not yet reached, the threshold to be considered vulnerable.

The common birdwing still retains its locally vulnerable status.

Data by ecologist Anuj Jain, who helmed a 2021 study on the distribution of both species across the island, shows that at least 14 community-led or privately owned gardens have supported the butterflies' populations.

In the garden tended to by Ms Tsang and Ms Burgos, pupae dangle off the strangest of surfaces: a pillar, a plant rack and chopsticks ensconced in a mist net that deters hungry squirrels.