Episode guide
Monarch Butterfly Migration: The Living Relay
No single monarch flies the whole round trip; the journey is a relay passed between generations. This episode follows the orange ribbon down a continent.
The science, gently
- Monarchs migrate up to three thousand miles to winter groves in the mountains of Mexico.
- The butterflies that return north are the great-grandchildren of the ones that left.
- No one taught them the route; the map is somehow carried inside.
Wonder together
- What has been passed down to you from your great-grandparents?
- How do you think a butterfly carries a map it has never seen?
- What would you pack for a three-thousand-mile flight, if you weighed less than a paperclip?
Tonight's calm-down
In the winter groves, millions of monarchs rest on the same trees their families have always used, wings closed, perfectly still. Fold your wings. Your tree is holding.