Blanca Huertas, the Guardian of Colorful Wings
Sometimes as children, we have dreams and hobbies that are lost when we mature. In the case of the Colombian Blanca Huertas, she turned her fascination into an immense collection
The Woman Post | Maria Claudia Londoño
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That collection today is the largest in the world and is located in the Natural History Museum in London.
Blanca was born in Bogotá, Colombia and from a very young age, she used to take walks around the country, where she could observe hundreds of butterflies from there her vocation was born, which later became a profession and that, over time, has come to be recognized for being the senior caretaker of the world's largest collection of butterflies of all kinds, which today has been housed in the Museum for 15 years, protected in giant cabinets with around five million specimens of butterflies from all over the world. 40,000 boxes must maintain a temperature of 14 degrees Celsius to avoid any damage to the butterflies they contain.
She began studying Biology and a specialization in Environmental Management in Colombia and then a master's degree in Systematics and Biodiversity at Imperial College London, and a doctorate at University College London today she is known as 'Madame Butterfly', ' Dr. Butterfly', or the 'Guardian of butterflies'.
She participated in 2015 in the special National Geographic documentary called "Colombia, wild magic" in which she was included in the team for being the scientist specialized in this kind of fauna and who would be the specialized voice to expose this topic. Since 2018 she has been the vice president of the Linnean Society, an entity in which Charles Darwin presented the initial version of the theory of the evolution of species.
According to a study published by the Museum where Blanca Huertas works, in the Book BUTTERFLIES OF COLOMBIA, this country has 3,642 species and 20,085 subspecies of butterflies, which represents 20% of all species of these animals on the planet and one of the most diverse and probably the most complex of any country on earth with 3,600 species of which 200 are exclusive to the country and can be compared with Europe where 496 species have been found, and 4,000 have been found on the African continent.
The Nobel Prize for Literature, the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, immortalized the yellow butterflies that are found mainly in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta area, as a symbol of "magical realism" with which he described this Latin American country.
This is how in this article in The Woman Post we highlight Blanca, but surely in our environment, we have many girls who dream of being scientists, biologists, entomologists, and zoologists and for whom a voice of encouragement, promoting their talents, and supporting their dreams, illusions and talents will be able to become a great leading figure in the future, living what you are passionate about.
