"What the butterflies’ travels reveal about the environmental challenges they face."
"The amazing monarch butterfly is as beautiful as it is mysterious. Every year, monarchs take part in an epic relay, with each generation playing a different but vital role.
Monarch butterflies that hatch in the spring and early summer live fast and die young at only two to six weeks. But those that emerge in late summer can survive six to nine months. That’s long enough to migrate thousands of miles south for the winter and start the return north the following spring to breed.
The precise paths these brave little insects take to get from North America to their winter colonies in Mexico have long eluded scientists and butterfly enthusiasts. But thanks to new technology, our phones and other Bluetooth devices can now tell us where these tiny creatures are traveling.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Dan Fagin is a journalism professor at New York University, where he directs the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program, and is writing a book about monarch butterflies. This interview has been edited for length and clarity."
