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Each September, millions of
monarch butterflies, each weighing only a few grams, begin a journey of up to
2,800 miles from Canada and the Northeast to Transverse Neovolcanic Mountains,
150 miles southwest of Mexico City. The monarch is one of the few insects
capable of such a journey (it is capable of trans-Atlantic crossings as well).
Amazingly, this migration only takes place every three to five generations, but,
somehow, by the last week of October, they arrive at the same small groups of
oyamel fir trees their ancestors populated the year before. The handful of
roosting sites, located at about 10,000 feet altitude, may contain 20 to 30
million monarchs in a single site only a few acres in size.
In early March, the monarchs mate
and start their journey back north. Along the way, the female lays her eggs on
milkweed plants and dies. The eggs become larvae, or caterpillars, then pupae
and transform into butterflies. These then mate and continue their journey, find
another milkweed, lay eggs and die. They will have lived only 60 to 90 days. The
process continues for 2,500 miles and three to five generations until they find
their summer home in the North.
The wintering grounds of the
monarch were unknown to outsiders until 1975. The Amazing Monarch captures a set of truly
stunning pictures of the monarch, considered by many to be nature's most
beautiful butterfly, in its rarely seen winter home.
About the author:
For the past 25 years, Windle
Turley has traveled the world photographing wildlife, large and small.
Orangutans in Borneo, gorillas in Africa, along with polar bears and
butterflies, are only a few of the many subjects he has tracked. Exhibits of his
works have been praised for their unique composition and character. When Turley
is not taking pictures of wildlife he is a practicing trial attorney in Dallas,
Texas.
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