This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Center for East Asian Studies and the Kansas African Studies Center.

Kansans love their butterflies: Countless yards and gardens have been converted to monarch way stations. But when it comes to butterflies, Kansas -- indeed, all of North America— can’t compete with Uganda. There are 650 butterfly species in North America. In comparison, Uganda is only about the size of Oregon and yet it is home to over 1200 butterfly species. What’s more: 50 of those species are found nowhere else in the world but Uganda. Uganda is known as the Pearl of Africa. People travel from all over the world to marvel at its wildlife, which includes 1,000 species of birds with such compelling names as the double-collared sunbird and the strange weaver and loads of charismatic megafauna such as the mountain gorilla, but clearly its butterflies make it a paradise for charismatic minifauna as well!

With thanks to Mackenzie Jones for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.