Unraveling the Great Butterfly Migration Mystery
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
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Follow me to Atlas Obscura to learn about the discovery of this place: • Discover the Story Beh...
Grab a headset and experience the monarch forest in VR180: • Mexico’s Monarch Butte...
The monarch butterfly migration is one of nature’s greatest events. This orange-winged wonder travels up to 4,500 km from all over North America to spend the winter hanging from oyamel fir trees in central Mexico’s mountain forests. I got to go there. Seeing tens of millions of butterflies dangling from the treetops is a truly breathtaking sight. But how does an animal with a brain the size of a poppy seed navigate to this one special place, especially since the last monarchs to make the trip lived 4 or 5 generations earlier? Get ready for an amazing story of science, instinct, and navigation. #nature #monarchbutterfly #migration
Special thanks to:
Dr. Steven Reppert - UMass Medical School
Atlas Obscura: @atlasobscura
Jason Goldman: @jgold85
Phil Torres: @phil_torres
Filmed on location at:
La Reserva de Biosfera de la Mariposa Monarca - Michoacán, Mexico
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - Austin, Texas
SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss a video! ►► bit.ly/iotbs_sub
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REFERENCES:
Guerra, P. A., & Reppert, S. M. (2013). Coldness triggers northward flight in remigrant monarch butterflies. Current Biology, 23(5), 419-423.
Reppert, S. M., Zhu, H., & White, R. H. (2004). Polarized light helps monarch butterflies navigate. Current Biology, 14(2), 155-158.
Reppert, S. M., Guerra, P. A., & Merlin, C. (2016). Neurobiology of monarch butterfly migration. Annual review of entomology, 61, 25-42.
Reppert, S. M., & de Roode, J. C. (2018). Demystifying monarch butterfly migration. Current Biology, 28(17), R1009-R1022.
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This is a video I've wanted to make for almost 5 years. Visiting the monarch winter forest was a dream come true, and I am so excited to share it with you. And please check out the video we made over on Atlas Obscura to learn more about the history of this place. Finally, we made a VR180 video so you can feel (and hear!) what it was like to be there. Links to all that in the description. Check them all out, you won't be sorry 🤓
5 YEARS!!!
You waited this long
The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity...
Here before this is number 1 trending
i think there is some researchers was looking this butterfly for understand how to make good plane but i dont remember who was they are
awesome juST AWESOME thanks BTW here before 1st
Everyone, please consider planting milkweed and native flowers to support these butterflies on their journeys! It's super easy and you can plant them pretty much anywhere along and around their migration route!
(upvote for visibility)
not just milkweed Native milkweeds
1000% agree. Where I live in North America the counties and highways spray the ditches with herbicide and it kill the milk weed and the butterflies 1000% not happy with these hypocrites running the . Also seen it being sprayed in ditches streams and wet lands next to roads
When I was a young boy in 1973, the monarchs changed their usual migratory course and flew through Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a spectacular sight, especially for a boy who was at the right age to be fascinated with all things bugs. The adults all talked about how it had never happened before. It has certainly not happened since. Yet I keep hoping that it might. If you could answer the question of why it happened then, I would be grateful.
As to why they took an anomalous route that year: the answer might centre around the availability of food (as detected down wind), in a year where weather and water were leading factors.
Another puzzle might also be explained:
The long migratory flight and return to a specific site in Central America could be connected to pheromones left at the trees by the previous gathering.
The hypothesis: that subsequent butterflies use both compass and internal clock to navigate a route that always brings them close enough to wind borne pheromones. The pheromones then guide them the rest of the way.
Literally the best story about nature I've heard in my entire life.
IMAX had an amazing documentary on how we discovered all this!
Monarch butterflies are my biggest phobia
Wow !!! MAN, you're FORTUNE - Monger úpon the Ease whichever your! offer a Word of Appease to Video that produced rather Chilly effect in me BUT maybe only because it is really sad to perceive DEATH surrounding Everything that ONCE was so lively and teeming with force of survival as Energy that cannot be denied in ANY way unless the Shadow of the End arrives on the doorstep of its fragile environment and creates indigenous to it~ Scenario for Full ~ fledged Grief, although NOT ALWAYS perceived as if an open book capablé of being read with an interest and ease interpreting phenomenon of "Survival after Experience of Death" whether with the Full involvement of the Senses or Individual experience of it which completely transforms the psyche AND available Sensitivities attuned to "feeling" it from up close and afar or from without onto within where ALL the Elements of Ghostly Gravitational Composure in Appearances DO Create a Landscape of NOT Exactly Imagined Classic Production from Hollywood but instead, are leading through the intricacies of the Darkest of Labyrinths known to Human where Greatest Mystics in "recorded" History have spent it's Lifetimes while pondering the Mystery of SURVIVAL and it's INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCE! as Limit of Available ENERGIES synchronized with the Cosmic Scales in Existing Universe dependent on Forces governing it's Passage of Time upon Historical interactions with Binding it FUTURE and PAST as if Mirror Imagery in Environments similar, if not Identical to Contemporary to our own with the difference of the "TIMESTEPS" being taken in the same span of its Survival Vector which the further the Constant leads in time, the more complex CHALLENGES the EXTANT does face AND EXPERIENCES while AGING along with it in EACH, SEPARATE segment of Survival in CONSEQUTIVE LIVES being lived while REPEATING the Cycles within ALLOW DIMENSIONS when the Need for Such Return Occurs as NO ONE is able to predict a MOMENT OF RE~AWAKENING in the Great, Frozen Zone of the Solar System stowed away amidst similar particles as our own brought forth as DUSTS of ENCAPSULATED LIFE’s SOULS with its Fractional MEMORIES while Other ARE being returned to Planetary Environment AFTER "PURIFICATION" always awaiting a Passage of COMETS with its varying periods of return in different historical epochs with the NEEDS predetermined by Life's Consequences and Necessary Futures to Evolve while PRESERVING MEMORIES of the ONES that DEPARTED in its Individually Existing Potential AND Capacity for Survival or it's Original Purpose or a Ultimate Cause known ONLY to Ties that Bind Realities with its NURTURING PATTERNS throughout the LIFETIMES of Forms creating a SOLID BASE that dwells in Realm of Darkness and Luminescence where One is Always a Background for the Other as the Supported One in Added GLOW of Prominence similar to the Nature of Stars and Enigma of Dark Energy with its 3~Dimensíonal, Super~Sensitive Fabric of Space as DOMAIN of the GREAT UNKNOWN ONE dwelling in Each UNIVERSE and BEYOND while navigating FATE in ALL DIMENSIONS and ITS SHADOW ENTITIES AS ONE in Present, Future and Past EVEN IF THE MEMORIES HAPPENED TO HAVE BEEN WEAK OR LOST.
@@katherinenowacki7230 so, what are you saying?
I agree. There’s tons of fave nature stories, but this is definitely up there.
My grandmother loves butterflies and I remembered her planting milkweed every year in her garden when I was a child. Every year they came. She loves it so much that my grandpa took the entire family to Mexico to witness the swarm. Imagine being surrounded by millions of butterflies as an 8 year old. I was scared but so excited. That trip changed my life forever and I knew I wanted to do something to help nature/creatures in this planet. 19 years later, I am now a biologist helping animals. The sanctuaries in Mexico are open to the public and highly recommend to those who can go.
My grandma still plants milkweed, but sadly, very few monarchs were seen the last two years here in NYC. Please plant native milkweed if you're in the US especially the west coast. They are threatened and if we can save the monarchs, the future generations can witness the same phenomenon I did as a child.
czcams.com/video/hRdBA59b8oY/video.html
It’s beyond beautiful, there’s no way to describe it, you have to be there
Thanks for the great video as always!
Greetings from México
It really is beyond belief. The sound of their wings… AMAZING
But, the pass of many people in that places threaten the butterfly, it should be a closed site, no one should set foot on it.
@@CM-js5bh I agree.
@@besmart I Love your videos it's okay to smart 🤓
@@besmart I love butterflies 🥰🦋
I am a Nature guide for young kids and this is seriously one of my favorite videos about Monarchs on CZcams.
Thank you so so so so much for this incredible explanation ❤
I am a 63 year old man from New Brunswick Canada. I have seen butterfly's all my life, but never knew much about them. I just filmed a Monarch in my yard the other day and posted the video on my channel. So when I went looking for some butterfly info for the video introduction I found this channel. "Thank You"! I enjoyed this video immensely, and learned a lot about butterfly's that I had no idea of. Especially about the migration, and their navigating abilities. Thanks again.
I have a garden full of milkweed and other native wildflowers to help my local butterflies. I love to imagine them on this journey and maybe some of the caterpillars born in my yard were ones you saw on your adventure. Thank you for sharing this amazing event with the world :)
You rock! An example for everyone
Most species of milkweed are extremely toxic, keep them away from any children
You can still assist them with a little cage and keep the caterpillars in their with cuttings so the won't get picked off by wasps or infected by that horrible aggressive Tachinid fly which I believe is a huge reason for their declining numbers in the western population.
@@yunhin9631 just don't eat them or get the sap in your eyes or on any open wounds
@@mister8800 Habitat lost is the main reason why the Western Monarch populations have been declining.
People clearing land, mowing their yards, spraying herbicides alongside farmers has caused Milkweed to become harder for Monarch Butterflies to find and lay their eggs on.
Monarch migration is an absolutely incredible phenomenon. I was 16 and I was taking my little brother to fill up his new Hippity Hop when I observed an enormous cloud of monarch butterflies that literally obscured the light of the sky and sun on Christmas Day 1980 in Morro Bay State Park. There were so many that the eucalyptus trees as well as all of the other available fence and plant surfaces were camouflaged in monarch orange and black while at the same time the sky was darkened with the remaining swarm that was still flying and couldn't find a surface to alight and appeared to be flying in formation. Seemingly breathing, constantly ebbing and flowing like a schooling mass of fish in the ocean. Indeed, it was at once such a remarkable sight to behold that I had to pull over and park on the side of the road with my little brother for a few minutes to just stare in awe at this magnificent manifestation of nature ! When I chose to proceed and head home I had to turn on the headlights of the vehicle for a while(and this was at 9:30-10:00 on Christmas morning).
That's a kick ass Christmas gift from Mother Nature
Me: what time is it?
Monarch Butterfly: _it's antenna-clock_
It is almost a quarter to next antenna
It's a-me-Mario!
You waited 5 years to see this, Joe?! Amazing. Glad we could join you for this experience :) Thanks for coming out!
Monarchs truly makes the meaning of ‘for a greater purpose’ so much more epic
The most amazing thing about this is that over lake superior they take a sudden eastward turn because millions of years ago, there was a mountain there that they couldn't have flown over. Today's generations of monarch butterflies still make that turn despite the mountain no longer existing
We don't understand and appreciate how smart the world around us really is
Not so much "smart" as complex and not like us. We call ourselves smart relative to all other animals, but we walk around very oblivious to most everything around us. Of course, that frees up our brains to do other things since we don't have to worry about being attacked by wild animals, only our own kind.
So true .
Absolutely marvelous.
The designer of the monarch butterfly, surely knew what he was doing
Im about halfway through the video and it is amazing what life does.
It makes me feel special to be human.. But it also makes me feel scared.
Life is so strange and unique,
And im so happy i got the opportunity to be able to comprehend it.
Thank you for the video.
yes and way actually watch the video and THEN comment. Respect.
@@TiegonBerry i watched the whole video
I never knew how complicated the life cycle and journey the monarch butterflies went through was.
And it just drew something deeper out of me
I get the opportunity in life
To look at a butterfly, and realize how much work evolution put into their biology. How the butterflies can pack so much information into so few neurons. Its incredible!
And at about 4 minutes i did want to express my the way i was feeling.
Science can sometimes make you feel so distinctly different.
To know that we are all connected, and that i just as easily could have been born a monach butterfly larvae, with only the instinct to eventually get my generational group to some random mountians so we can stsrt the process all over again.
Its just mind blowing to me that life can be so complex with so little to work with.
@@xNathan2439x Yes! I am proud that you actually provided watch time unlike the people who just say first or try to make a joke based on the title with out watching. I have a problem with comment channels that just comment and then leave as they can actually hurt the video when the algorithm sees a person leave right away. Nathan unlike the bad actors you are the good side of youtube keep it up!
@@TiegonBerry yeah i have notifications turned on
The video hadn'tnt actually been out long enough for me to have watched the whole thing
So i thought it would be good to say how far i was into it.
Thank you for the complement
You really made my day with that..
NATHAN BRANNON It gotta be God. Its too complex to be random neurons.
I was there with my Mexican girlfriend (I'm Danish) about one month ago, and I can confirm Joe's "amazing claim." I can also recommend the hotels in the beautiful town Angangueo close to the butterflies, if one day isn't enough to take it all in.
Kind regards from Mexico and Denmark.
If you ever go back down to Mexico during the winter make sure to visit and see the river of raptors in Veracruz. It is the largest annual migration for bird of preys in the world and you’ll see so many bird of preys in one spot. Not that many snowbirds who travel down to Mexico during the winter know of this event.
this is mind blowing. Nature is so beyond complex we don't even fully understand it. I love that.
UP NEXT: Why Nature Love Hexagons.
Me: looks a Joes profile picture. Hmm what’s that shape?
@@travelmaniak3127 r/wooooosh
Who's joe
@@mangosquirrel Joe mama🤣🤣
Lovely video :) A monarch butterfly landed on my shoulder this morning when I was out in the garden having my morning coffee. It's those moments in life that really make you appreciate nature. Butterflies are so beautiful 🦋🦋🦋
just this morning I was telling my mom about how monarchs go through multiple generations while migrating, and then you upload this today. turns out it's even cooler than I realized.
What an incredible insect.
They remind me of hummingbirds -- tiny birds that make enormous migrations across the continent.
Actually, we have the same manifestation on the Central Coast of California. Specifically between Pismo Beach and Grover City. Have loved seeing it againn and again. Nature is magic💖
Me: oh there's some butterflies moving
Johnny: lets call it the Great Monarch Butterfly Migration!
I was so lucky to see the monarchs in the same place in Mexico, it was amazing!!! Awesome video, great info!
In Southern California in the early 80's I remember seeing a lot of them not a massive cloud like some have said but it covered one driveway length 6 foot tall bush. I remember picking one up and putting it back on the bush and being amazed how many just sat there and they didn't fly away when I got close. Huge butterflies and still my favorite
I remember seeing so many of them up in southern Ontario, Canada when I was a kid. Now, I hardly see them anywhere. It's cool to see them alive and well to this day.
Yeah,me too ! They never came back and I’ve been worried ever since. I just put it down to “something people have screwed up”:
Awesome! I was literally just cleaning my milkweed garden for the coming months while this was posted!
"I'm not gonna lie.", is one of the strangest phrases to me.
It makes me think, every time you told me something and didn't preface with that phrase you were lying.?.?.
Great vid, per usual!
brings back a lot of childhood memories for me. i used to raise monarchs every spring with my mom
What timing "posted 19 seconds ago" lucky me I get to procrastinate some more.
I live in a part of California where Monarchs migrate to. It is truly a miracle of biology and a beautiful sight to behold.
That's a separate population from the monarchs that go to Mexico, and they might be in even bigger trouble. Plant flowers and milkweed!
I live in Santa Cruz California and we have a monarch butterfly sanctuary. They come back from around October to February
Yes I have seen it, I wonder what's the difference between Western and Eastern populations if they actually go to mexico
@@LegoCookieDoggie the ones on the west overwinter in California while the monarchs east of the Rockies overwinter either mostly in Mexico or a small part of South Florida.
A True Beatiful Nature of My Beloved Mexico :)
This is so beautiful. When learning the full story of their migration. I was so sad to keep seeing dead monarch butterflies around our beach area at the end of the summer. Thinking back on it, there were caterpillars showing up too. This must have been a stop on the migration pattern. I feel connected to such an amazing a beautiful part of nature. Thank you for this video.
Man this is one of the best fascinating story ever watched on CZcams.
I love when Joe tells us “this is going to change the way you look at X” because I know it is true, and it’s amazing having science awe me like that.
So cool that you teamed up with Atlas Obscura!
Anyhoo, between this video and the most recent Scishow Space video, I'm feeling very tiny and insignificant in this amazing, mind-bogglingly vast universe
I love monarch butterflies! They're so beautiful. I learned about butterflies. Very interesting.🙂
This is the most beautiful insect I have ever had to make me feel better and the life cycle is so awesome that this insect can migrate every year and not just one migration but the monarch navigation by the sun and I love this butterfly
I have wanted to go there for decades and I would cry to see it in person.
I planted a milkweed in my yard that looked like its never seen a milkweed and within a week, bam, there was a monarch. Like, how did they know I put that there!
Yoish! Thank you so much for putting this video and the other ones you do. They are amazing and outstanding! Here at my farm in Northern California, planting milkweed and other flowers to support their migration is one of our missions. It is my hope that others will watch your work and then take the next step and start planting.
Amazing! Thank you so much for putting this together. I really enjoyed learning more about the Monarch's and you did it in an easy to understand way.
Magic.. Please if you have a garden big or small go to a reputable nursery where you live and buy milkweed plants.I did this in San Antonio and literally two days later there were monarchs feeding on them.Bless the Butterflies!
This is astounding. Mind-bending.
This video is way underrated
The butterflies are so wonderful, but it makes me kind of sad. As a kid there were butterflies everywhere where I live in South Texas, I could find eggs on milkweed ever year and watch them hatch. The last 5-7 years even though we have milkweed still and I see the occasional single monarch I've yet to find eggs. It feels like there are fewer every year :(
Thank you guys! I love this channel so much😁
I knew how cool they are which is what led me to grow milkweed, after watching this I'm even more amazed 🤗
Butterfly's without wings are bloody horrifying
Stop pulling their wings off, you monster.
@@Psychol-Snooper ha haha, I definitely read that as wigs the first time
@@outside8312
And stop pulling little old lady's wigs off! Is there nothing you won't do? XD
@@Psychol-Snooper NEVER!
@@outside8312
Fascist...
The school test covered the story of a monarch butterfly, but it was difficult to understand in textbooks, so I came across this video while I was in trouble!
This is exactly what I was looking for!
Thank you sooooo much!!!!
Sooooo Cool ! Thanks for your time .. I love learning and you make it easy. Remain curious it suits you !
I love your work! So glad I found this CZcams channel.
I grew up in South Texas along the Mexico border. Giant clouds of monarchs would pass through twice a year, around March/April and September/October. It was both absolutely gorgeous and heartbreaking. Driving during those weeks meant knowing that it was impossible to avoid killing them.
man, the production quality went up a notch with this video. awesome work!
Super spectacular! Great job,Joe.😁🦋 Keep up the good work.
Omg I love this video! Thanks for sharing this beautiful migration of monarch butterflies. The world is full of wonder!
It’s amazing how they migrate
Wow. Amazing video. Most of the things you post i have heard about or i already know, but this was totally new and exciting. Thank you! Keep up the good work.
Love your videos! Always stunning and informative
Where i live state of México, are some signos that tell us "this way monark pass", and some of us plant plantas, so the se incredible insectos can feed and resto in their way to south.
I really love that we don't get to see the front of your face because you're so enraptured by the butterflies. I love it a lot. You're a good human, my friend. 😊
YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN JEALOUS OF BUTTER-GLIDER!!
Your videos are getting really really good, you deserve more subscribers. Keep it up!
Now this is dedication
Hi I live in South East Canada, and I did have the experience of seeing trees full of Monarch butterflies WOW BUT THAT WAS 30 YEARS AGO were has the time gone. Thanks for sharing this wonderful and interesting information about one of natures wonders.
Muchas gracias! Thank you for a great video. Beautiful and so well put together with fascinating science facts! I recently visited that very same reserve. Amazing sight to see and quite surreal. I’d love to see more trees planted on route to the site. Again thanks for your video!
Wow! I had no idea about the generations and super generation! Incredible. Thank you for making this video.
Superb. Thanks a lot for sharing & for the lovely efforts 😊. Hanya -Egypt
Fantastic explanation! Thanks for sharing such a great video!
I had a tree line that bordered my property that had a tree in it that the monarchs rested in during the night. There would be hundreds of them hanging in it. Unfortunately the tree was cut down when the land owner cleared the tree line.
Impressive work. Very informative. THANK YOU! 🦋
OK - it's not the first explanation I've seen about Monarchs and their migration - but it was the best! Excellent. The skills, talents, knowledge, and tools to make this journey are genetically transmitted - yes ok, but the overwintering spot wasn't in its current location millions, or several hundreds of millions of years ago. Where did ancient monarchs travel to and from and how have those learnings been updated as the continents have shifted over the millennia?
At Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford, CT they often congregate beautifully on their route down south. Such a sight to see them playing amongst the dahlias, daisies and lilacs. 🥳🥰
I love this video. Ty for sharing
We live in Huntington valley PA been growing butterflies including monarchs for years, by basically planting nectar rich flowers and host plants, then collecting the caterpillars to continue to feed them and care for them in a secure in closure, they grow, form chrysalis, hatch, we let them out….
So, thanks to your frivolous travel, monarchs are struggling more. Great job.
This video surpass my expectations by far
My favorite example of natural selection how they reproduce and travel such far distances is truely amazing.
It's Just so nice to see,anyone could be relaxed by this.
This is amazing, thanks for the enlightenment!
That was an amazing video! Thank you! 🙂
Sir...this is freakishly awesome !!!
Clicked out of curiousity, stayed for Phil Torres, rewatched because it's awesome.
You guys need to have your friend Phil Torres in your videos more often. 🤩🤩
Really great video, thank you!
I can't get ENOUGH info on my favorite butterfly. I clicked so hard! 🥰💕🦋
Joe: *...pinhead sized brains...*
Butterflies: *who you callin pinhead*
This was very well presented and easy to follow
This video has blown my mind away.
Whoa! You let him outdoors! Haha
Great video as always. Please keep them coming and continue to spread knowledge in the most awesome ways!
Its just.... so beautiful.
"Neither do you apparently."
Y'all are awesome. lol.
pretty awesome Doctor.. you open my mind
Love the hard work. Great research and totally watchable.
I'm almost curious of what causes someone to dislike this? Almost. Something's are not worth looking into.
I love this video!! So much cool stuff!
Love this show and this guy!!!
Thanks mom for taking me to this beautiful place that I never forget!