Butterfly guardian surveys Yunnan biodiversity

Despite his many epithets, Yang considers himself an ordinary guy. "If anything, I think of myself only as a butterfly enthusiast with an everlasting passion for them," he said.

Yang was born and raised in the town of Maandi in Jinping county, which is part of the Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture, bordering Vietnam.

The town has a mild and humid climate with an average temperature of about 18 C and abundant rainfall all year round. There are more than 2,670 hectares of bamboo that provide the butterflies in the area with plentiful food and ideal breeding grounds.

An extraordinary event occurs in Jinping from May to June each year as an estimated 100 million butterflies burst forth from their chrysalises in the biodiverse county, creating a rare sight known as a butterfly explosion.

"When I was a kid, a mountain path leading to my school was thronged with so many butterflies that I had to wave them aside to make my way forward," said Yang. "Some elderly people in the village said that there were even more butterflies when they were young, but there is no clear record as to when butterflies first emerged here."

The butterfly is a symbol of love in China. In a well-known legend considered the Chinese equivalent of Romeo and Juliet, two star-crossed lovers separated due to pressures from their families, transform into a pair of butterflies and live happily ever after.

In the 1980s, locals in Jinping disliked the abundance of butterflies, fearing they were affecting their crops, and some even sprayed chemicals to curb their population.

"For me, I just thought the scene of butterflies flapping their wings in the breeze was very beautiful," said Yang, who was working at an agricultural facility at the time.