KOTA KINABALU: The gazette of the Kinabalu Birdwing butterfly, known as 'Kalibambang Emas', as the official state butterfly of Sabah is an initiative by the state government to further improve the conservation of the butterfly species, as well as others.
The Kinabalu Birdwing, or its scientific name Troides Andromache, was chosen because the species is an endemic species that can only be found in Sabah and Sarawak and only at an altitude between 1,000 to 2,000 feet above sea level.
The Sabah Biodiversity Centre, in a media statement to Bernama, stated that the name "Kalibambang Emas" was chosen by the state cabinet among the list of names proposed by the gazette committee.
The name of the butterfly is a word of the Sungai tribe, which means a large butterfly, yellow like gold, bright and beautiful.
"The characteristics of the Kinabalu Birdwing butterfly - it has wings with a width of between 60 and 70 millimetres, with the size of the wings of the male butterfly twice smaller than the size of the female butterfly.
"The butterfly can only be found in the Mount Kinabalu and Crocker Range areas.
"It is also found in Sipitang near Merapok and is considered to be very rare and difficult to catch," according to the statement.
The butterfly species has been listed as 'vulnerable' under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List and listed as a protected animal under Part I Table 2 of the Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997.
On Sept 1, 2023, the butterfly species was listed under the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment (Amendment) 2023, as a Protected Biological Resource.
According to the statement, all programmes involving conservation including introducing the butterfly to the public will be carried out by the Sabah Biodiversity Centre in collaboration with the relevant departments and agencies.
The decision to make the Kinabalu Birdwing butterfly the official state butterfly took about a year and also involved various parties including the late Dr Stephen Sutton, who ran the Kinabalu Birdwing Project under the Rotary Club of Kota Kinabalu.
Stephen died on Dec 31 last year at the age of 85. He was a reputable entomologist and butterfly researcher.
Through the Kota Kinabalu Rotary Club initiative, he started a butterfly and moth research project in 2019 in Sabah, but his work in the research and conservation of Sabah's biodiversity started in the 1990s.
Other agencies involved in the gazette of the Kinabalu Birdwing butterfly as the official state butterfly are the Sabah Forestry Department, Kinabalu Birdwing Project, Rotary Club, Sabah Parks, Sabah State Attorney-General's Department, Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Tourism Board, researcher Corné Van Der Linden and senior lecturer at the Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Dr Nazirah Mustaffa.
On Oct 2 last year, the Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister (KePKAS) Datuk Christina Liew officially announced the Kinabalu Birdwing as the official state butterfly of Sabah.