蝴蝶的神奇之旅

The documentary depicts monarch butterflies’ great and mysterious migration. Each year’s autumn, millions of monarch butterflies start their incredible southward migration from Canada, cross America, to Mexico. They fly above 2,000 miles to arrive the mountain of Mexico .....


　　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..

颠覆了我对蝴蝶的认知。它们不是浪漫脆弱的，而是坚定无畏的。

3000公里的迁徙，脆弱的翅翼和抖落的鳞粉，这是不是生命的奇迹。

黑脉金斑蝶，成长过程蜕4次皮，第5次变蛹，10天左右成蝶，几个小时翅膀变硬，翅膀宽度不足4英尺，本身重量不超0.2盎司。从墨西哥向北，第1代飞向墨西哥湾各州，第2代飞向北美，第3代飞向加拿大，各存活1个月；再从加拿大向南，第4代飞向墨西哥过冬，存活9个月，全程2000英里，历时2个月，由于扇动翅膀耗能过多，多以滑翔方式迁徙。南迁两大困难：五大湖；沙漠（索诺拉？奇瓦瓦？）

1.帝王蝶定位墨西哥的方向的天赋真的很神奇。人类需要实用复杂仪器完成的事情，它们天生就具备这样的能力。果真地上的百合花不耕作，天父也养活它。另外，如果有一天人类发现了它的原理，或许可以从仿生学的角度利用。3.墨西哥人将蝴蝶视为祖先的灵魂，可视为民俗与自然互动的一例。待考。

小小的蝴蝶，拥有美丽的花纹，轻盈的身躯，却能从加拿大穿越几千公里飞到墨西哥，这令人异常惊讶，大自然的生灵竟如此顽强，不得不让人刮目相看。但是它们在墨西哥的栖息地却遭到破坏，这不得不让人痛心，希望当地的人们能够保护着可爱的精灵。。。

君主斑蝶 Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) 的3000公里旅程。

如果没有蝴蝶迁徙的话会怎么样呢？就像这个世界没有了蒙娜丽莎或莫扎特的音乐又会是什么样呢？因为他们是我们文化的一部分。

单程两千公里从加拿大到墨西哥，而回程甚至经历了三代，这是怎样的旅程啊！

一只蝴蝶迁徙2000公里，这已经是一个奇迹。