PENAMPANG, MALAYSIA: Two years ago, Jaito Gokusing earned a living by repairing heavy vehicles. Today, his job is much more delicate.
He spends his days showing people insects like the Rajah Brooke Birdwing (Troides brookianan), stag beetle (Cyclomattus chewi) and Peacock Swallow Tail (Papilio karna).
Since the Kipandi Butterfly Park opened in Moyog over a year ago, Jaito has been a guide there. It is a family business run by his brother, Linus.
The small roadside park features butterflies, moths, bugs and other insects apart from a collection of pitcher plants and orchids.
"While growing up, I was always keen on working on engines or vehicles. I never thought about insects or orchids. All I knew was kolibambang or kolibobog (butterfly or moth in the Kadazandusun dialect).
"This has been a whole new experience for me. It gives me a sense of belonging because I'm more aware of the living things I grew up with around the village, the things we always took for granted," he said.
Located 700 metres above sea level in the Crocker Range and about 36km from Kota Kinabalu along the Penampang-Tambunan road, the park has an insectarium and a collection of plants on a one-hectare site.
Rabius, another brother, said they guided visitors to the park, which has over 100 species of live butterflies, 800 butterfly specimens and over 1,800 beetles.
"The park also has a special area for rare and endangered orchids and pitcher plants.
"This is a joint conservation project with the Sabah Wildlife Department."
Rabius said the plants were salvaged from trees felled during land-clearing operations. There are about 400 species of native orchids and 15 species of pitcher plants in the park's collection.
"We cater for walk-in visitors daily, but we are particularly busy during weekends and holidays.
"We also have many foreign visitors, especially Japanese, who are keen to see our beetles."
The park also organises night insect shows and educational programmes for students.
"Our most rare butterfly specimen is the Troides miranda, or Miranda Birdwing. We only have a pair in the insectarium. Another rare specimen is probably the Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) which is the biggest in Borneo," he said.
"We hope to learn more about the insects because that will help us build up more interest to share with our visitors. It's hard because we are relatively new in this field, but we'll see."
