02 Jan 2025
3,000 Kilometers 4 Months and 1 Tiny Traveler – The Chestnut Tiger’s Epic Flight from Japan to Hong Kong

The Chestnut Tiger (Parantica sita) in Repulse Bay, prior to its capture. Photo courtesy: Yuet Fung LING.
While many Hongkongers head to Japan for their holidays, it seems one little traveller has flipped the script. A butterfly has made the reverse journey, flying an incredible 3,000 kilometres from Japan to Hong Kong—perhaps for its own winter getaway!
On August 18, 2024, two butterfly markers, Mr Masayoshi SHIMIZU and Mr Hiroki TAKIZAWA, spent the day placing stickers on the wings of the Chestnut Tiger butterfly (Parantica sita) in the Grandeco Ski Resortlocated in the Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. This species of butterfly is well-known for its long-distance migrations, and marking or tagging their wings provides valuable data about their movement, including how far they travel, the direction they take, and how long they survive. Over the course of the season, Mr Shimizu and Mr Takizawa spent six days at Grandeco and managed to tag an impressive 481 butterflies.
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The Chestnut Tiger (Parantica sita) captured in Repulse Bay on Dec 21 2024 was tagged in Japan on Aug 18 2024. Photo courtesy: Yuet Fung Ling. | Hiroki Takizawa (Left) and Masayoshi Shimizu (Right) worked together to tag the butterflies at Grandeco Ski Resort, including the individual captured in Hong Kong in Dec 2024. |
Fast forward to December 21, 2024, Dr Yuet Fung LING, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), was out catching butterflies in Repulse Bay. To his surprise, he spotted a male Chestnut Tiger – a rare species in Hong Kong – with a sticker on its wing. Even more surprisingly, written on the sticker were Japanese characters and the date ‘Aug 18’, confirming that this butterfly had been tagged in Fukushima four months earlier.
Team leaders of the Danaid Butterfly Research Hong Kong: (from left to right) Yuet Fung Ling, Emily Jones, and Timothy Bonebrake. Photo courtesy: Timothy Bonebrake.
Dr Ling works with Professor Timothy BONEBRAKE and PhD candidate Miss Emily JONES at SBS. Together, they lead the Danaid Butterfly Research Hong Kong, a group dedicated to studying the seasonal movements of danaid butterflies in Hong Kong. By carefully placing URL-branded stickers on butterfly wings (similar to those used in Japan), the group tracks the movements of species through public sightings and reports. Through mutual colleagues, the research team managed to connect with Mr Shimizu and Mr Takizawa to confirm the record. The adult butterfly was at least 124 days old and had travelled more than 3,000 km (3,016 km straight-line distance from Grandeco to Repulse Bay).
This discovery set a new distance record for the species and is only the third time a butterfly has been detected migrating from Japan to Hong Kong. The previous record, set in 2011, involved a Chestnut Tiger that flew an estimated 2,423 km and lived for 82 days.
‘It’s an astonishing feat. For a little insect like this to fly more than 3,000 km and do so for more than 100 days just shows the physiological capacity for these creatures,’ noted Professor Timothy Bonebrake. ‘The record also highlights how much is left to discover about these important migratory phenomena. To gather data to effectively conserve these migrations, we need more international collaboration like this and active participation from the public.’
After recording the butterfly, Dr Ling released it back into the wild. Whether Hong Kong is its final destination or just another stop on its journey remains a mystery.
Researchers are calling on the public to help unravel these mysteries. If you spot a butterfly with a sticker on its wings, report it to the Butterfly Research Hong Kong. Every sighting brings us closer to understanding and protecting these amazing migratory species.
To find out more about danaid butterflies and the research efforts of Danaid Butterfly Research Hong Kong, please visit: