welcome back they are rightful named
kings and queens the royalty of
butterflies quite possibly the most
familiar butterfly in North America the
monarch butterfly is an iconic
pollinator that goes on a mighty
migrations some up to 3,000 miles
through North America wildlife expert my
friend and zoo Miami's own Ron Magill
traveled to the origin of their journey
and his son Sean McGill shot edited and
produced a mesmerizing feature on this
fluttering phenomenon monarchs are an
iconic butterfly found around the world
however the eastern North American
subspecies is the only one to make a
migration that can span thousands of
miles this incredible journey involves
several generations and can include many
millions of butterflies the amazing
Odyssey begins in the highlands of
central Mexico on the trans volcanic
belt west of Mexico City or in 1986 the
Mexican government designated
approximately 140,000 acres of forests
as a monarch butterfly biosphere and in
2008 it was officially designated by
UNESCO as a World Heritage Site of all
the reserves within the biosphere and
the Rosario is the best known and is the
wintering ground for the largest number
of monarchs in the world sometimes
numbering over 100 million in March the
butterflies begin to leave Mexico and
head north laying their eggs on the
milkweed plants they require to
reproduce shortly after they lay their
eggs they die when the eggs hatch those
butterflies continue to head north and
lay their eggs this process repeats
itself for two to three generations
until the Monarchs reach their northern
range in the US and southern Canada
around August the eggs laid by the last
generation to travel northward begin to
hatch however unlike the previous
generations that only lives several
weeks this super generation lives eight
to nine months and whereas it took
several generations of butterflies to
reach the northern part of the range
this super generation will take a little
over two months to fly all the way back
to central Mexico to winter in the same
place where their great great
grandparents began this epic Odyssey if
there is such a thing as an enchanted
forest
it's easy to see how this could be it
with millions upon millions of monarch
butterflies whenever you hear each year
it is the single greatest congregation
of butterflies anywhere on earth
this annual natural phenomenon wasn't
discovered until the mid 1970s when a
Canadian scientist named dr. Fred
Eberhart enlisted citizen scientists to
tag individual butterflies so they could
be tracked and their migration patterns
discovered the butterflies arrived in
Mexico for the winter around the
beginning of November at over 10,000
feet above sea level the temperatures in
the reserves can often fall below
freezing and the butterflies gather
motionless in huge clusters high in the
hundred-foot fir trees in a state of
hibernation for several weeks as the
temperatures begin to rise in
mid-january the butterflies wait for the
rays of the Sun to penetrate the forest
and they slowly begin to shiver and open
their wings to absorb the heat once the
temperature reaches approximately 60
degrees Fahrenheit they begin to fly and
search for nectar to refuel close to the
forest floor in addition to the natural
beauty provided by this phenomenon this
migration has also proven to be an
economic benefit to the local
communities as thousands of visitors
travel from around the world to
experience it it has also helped to
connect nations in an effort to work
together to help preserve the natural
treasures that are important to the
quality of life for all of us the rest
of the world should care about the
Monarchs because we are now working
together with u.s. and Canada to protect
the Monarchs as we understand they are
connecting our countries so we can help
each other and for the rest of the world
they should follow us in such a way to
protect the world for everyone in the
heat of the day countless thousands of
butterflies descend to the creek bed to
drink and create what appears to be an
endless carpet of wings as you look up
the skies are filled with butterflies
there are so many monarchs flying around
you that you can actually hear their
wings fluttering as you look down you
see the countless dead butterflies that
have come to the end of their journey
and will be absorbed by the forest floor
to help feed the oyamel fir trees that
will protect future generations of these
amazing insects since reaching critical
lows in 2013 the numbers of monarchs
migrating into Mexico have begun to rise
thanks to the efforts of the Mexican
government to protect these forests
combined with programs in Canada and the
United States to plant milkweed and
other wildflowers along the migration
routes it is the hope that this trend
continues so the future generations can
experience one of nature's most amazing
specters in Michigan Mexico
I'm Ron Magill fascinating ron tells us
that this was an emotional journey for
him because according to folklore
Mexicans believe that butterflies are
the spirits of their departed ancestors
and if you saw in that final standup
Ron amazingly had a butterfly resting on
his chest and then it flutters off right
to the camera as Shaun is filming it
while Ron says that it happened
naturally and that he'd like to believe
that it was a sign from his father who
passed away twenty-eight years ago and
never had a chance to meet his grandson
Shaun that maybe it was a sign that's
amazing and just Shawn's photography I
mean being a reporter and knowing what
goes into capturing those images the
shutter speeds and focusing on those
butterflies it was really some National
Geographic stuff going on