TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: January 27, 2009
Orange-and-black wings fill the sky as NOVA charts one of
nature's most remarkable phenomena: the epic migration of
monarch butterflies across North America. NOVA's filmmakers
followed monarchs on the wing throughout their extraordinary
odyssey. To capture a butterfly's point of view, camera
operators used a helicopter, ultralight, and hot-air balloon
for aerial views along the butterflies' transcontinental
route. (Learn more about the production techniques and
adventure of traveling with the monarchs in an
interview
with Director Nick de Pencier.)
The film opens with caterpillars munching milkweed in southern
Canada in late summer. Soon each caterpillar transforms itself
into a silky chrysalis. Roughly 10 days later, a delicate
four-winged monarch emerges.
Then, at some unknown signal, the monarchs take to the air on
a two-month, 2,000-mile flight over fields, forests, cities,
plains, open water, deserts, and finally mountains to
congregate in a tiny, high-altitude region of central Mexico
where they've never been before. Incredibly, they arrive by
the millions at the same time each year.
Shedding light on this natural wonder are some of the world's
leading monarch researchers, including Lincoln Brower of Sweet
Briar College, independent biologist Bill Calvert, and Orley
"Chip" Taylor of the University of Kansas.
Putting the monarch phenomenon into perspective, Taylor says,
"You've got a butterfly that's originating in Toronto, or it's
originating in Detroit, Michigan, or it's coming down from St.
Paul or maybe even Winnipeg, and it's moving south. Somehow it
finds its way to Mexico. Could you do that?"
No one yet knows how the butterflies do it, but Taylor's
research reveals that they are expert navigators. In one
experiment, he transported Mexico-bound monarchs from Kansas
to Washington, DC, and then set them loose. At first, they
flew south as if they were still in Kansas—a course that
from Washington would miss Mexico entirely. But after a few
days, they corrected their flight path, as if some inborn GPS
unit had alerted them to the true direction of their
destination.
In another sequence, NOVA accompanies celebrated monarch
watcher Bill Calvert around backcountry Texas as he looks for
signs of the monarch migration. Sure enough, they show up en
masse and on time, heading toward the Sierra Madre mountains
across the border—the last leg of their flight.
And in the Mexican state of Michoacán, NOVA joins
mountain villagers as they celebrate the arrival of the
monarchs in the first week of November. The butterflies'
arrival marks the start of a celebration called the Day of the
Dead, since the local people have traditionally associated the
monarchs with the returning souls of their departed ancestors.
Unfortunately, illegal logging in the Mexican butterfly
sanctuaries threatens the unique habitat that monarchs depend
on for their survival. Monarchs may not yet be an endangered
species, but their annual migration is an endangered
phenomenon that could dwindle to insignificance if the giant
firs that they cling to during the winter disappear.
Gone also would be the colorful festival that closes the
program—a fireworks display welcoming the hardy fliers
to Mexico, with orange bursts against the black sky, looking
almost like the beautiful cloaks of the monarchs.
Program Transcript
Program Credits
