Anderson Cooper on witnessing the monarch butterfly migration
This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Anderson Cooper reports on the migration of the monarch butterflies, an annual spectacle during which millions of butterflies begin their trek north from Mexico, where they have spent the winter. The butterflies have flown south from the U.S. and Canada each fall, and this transnational migration remains one of science's great mysteries: millions of monarchs know the correct path to migrate even though they have never made the long journey themselves.
For humans, the expedition to see the butterflies' migration can be its own challenge.
It took the 60 Minutes team three years of planning to produce this week's story. The window during which butterflies leave their overwintering roosts in Mexico's pine and fir trees is short and at the mercy of the weather. This year, the temperature was uncooperative for days before the team began shooting.
But first, they had to get there. This year, more than 60 million monarch butterflies roosted in a four-and-a-half-acre patch of forest on the side of a mountain, 11,000 feet up. Cooper and the 60 Minutes team first rode horses, then hiked, all while carrying camera gear.
"It's really a gamble," Cooper said. "You can get there, and if the weather's not cooperative, if the sun doesn't come out from the clouds, if it's too cold all day long, the monarchs aren't going to be flying around. And you really won't have much of a story if you don't see them flying."
When the team finally got to the preserve where the butterflies were roosting, the weather was cloudy and cold. The fir trees did not move much. Their branches sagged downward, heavy from all the roosting butterflies, and the general appearance was brown. Monarch's characteristic orange colors are only on the top of the wings and are not visible when the butterflies' wings are closed.
A lot of monarchs lay on the ground, some dead and some too cold to move. Because the ground was so littered with butterflies, the area where 60 Minutes filmed was not open to tourists.
Suddenly, the clouds floated on, revealing the sun. As its warm light hit the trees, flickers of orange began to dot the branches. Soon, the air filled with the sight of monarch butterflies who had taken flight and the sound of millions of wings flapping for the first time in months.
"When we left, there was going to be rain clouds for the next several days," Cooper said. "We got incredibly lucky."
One of the guides who led Cooper was Court Whelan, a nature photographer who runs tour groups to the butterfly reserve. He has traveled the world in search of animals, including on safari in Africa and in rainforests in Papua New Guinea. He told Cooper the migration of monarch butterflies remains one of the most remarkable sights he has seen.
"I think when it comes down to, you know, the impressiveness of a single species," he told Cooper, "this takes the cake."
Photos courtesy of Court Whelan.
The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and edited by Scott Rosann.
