Monarch butterfly

How monarch butterflies navigate from Canada to Mexico each year

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A threatened butterfly could be helped after scientists cracked the secret of how its brain works.

Researchers believe they have discovered how the internal compass is used by the monarch butterfly to determine their south-west flight when they migrate each autumn.

Scientists have never understood how the monarch’s brain receives and processes information about its location and where they should fly.

But now it is hoped this discovery will help scientists understand how they navigate and locate their food.

Each year monarchs turn their orange, black and white-mottled wings toward the Rio Grande and migrate more than 2,000 miles to the warmer climbs of central Mexico.

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After 90 Percent Decline, Federal Protection Sought For Monarch Butterfly

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Please join CFS in urging the FWS to protect monarch butterflies!

MonarchButterflyMonarch butterflies are one of the most beautiful and iconic insects in the world, and they are in serious trouble. The monarch butterfly population in North America has been shrinking at an alarming rate. Why? A major culprit is the use of herbicides like Monsanto’s Roundup on genetically engineered (GE) crops, which is destroying a significant portion of their breeding habitat.

That’s why Center for Food Safety and Center for Biological Diversity have just co-filed a groundbreaking legal petition–joined by Xerces Society and renowned monarch scientist Prof. Lincoln Brower–to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).If listed, the U.S. government would be required to take urgent and significant action to protect monarchs from further declines. Continue reading →

The Journey

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KickStarter May 2013

View a ~5 minute video of this planned documentary here

Butterfly

Over six years ago I saw the amazing beauty of the Monarch butterflies in Mexico. “Amazing” barely describes it. These butterflies are more than delicate creatures that travel thousands of miles, over the length of three continents, to spend the winter in Mexico. They fill the mountains, trees and skies with a sea of orange. The sound of their wings silences you.

Mexicans insist they are the souls of dead ancestry that arrive in time to celebrate the Day of the Dead in their country.

After much research I have discovered stories that these butterflies have appeared in times of tragedy, bringing beauty to a sad, sometimes tragic moment and hope to someone that needs it. Is this merely a coincidence?

This film will follow the Monarch’s migration from Canada to Mexico, meeting people who have been touched by their coincidental appearance and hearing their heart-warming stories.

You may have seen nature documentaries on them, but this will put a super-natural and much more people-focused twist on it. It will be a positive and almost magical look at, not just nature, but a subject we don’t love talking about – death.

If we don’t hit our budget, then you won’t be charged a penny. Of course I’m asking you to help with funding, but also please pass this to one person (or more) who will find this story interesting: lovers of butterflies, Mexico, nature, Day of the Dead… whoever you can think of. One way or another, this is going to get made. I hope you help me.

Thank you for your time.

Risks And Challenges