This strikingly beautiful book brings us photos of the
Monarch butterfly. The author Windle Turley was granted
permission by the Government of Mexico to enter protected
breeding grounds in order to illustrate THE AMAZING MONARCH.
As the gaily decorated butterflies gather before flying
north, they completely cover the trunks and branches of
trees. Innumerable insects form a lively scene as they take
flight like a sky full of flowers.
Whimsical quotes are presented by Chinese philosopher
Chuang-Tzu, who "dreamt he was a butterfly, and famously
when he awoke, he wondered if he was a man who dreamt he was
a butterfly or a butterfly now dreaming it was a man." Emily
Dickinson, Buckminster Fuller, Carl Sagan and Robert
Heinlein are also quoted. A Native American legend
holds that we should tell our wish to a butterfly, who will
tell it to the Great Spirit. The wish will be granted in
thanks for letting the butterfly go free.
Meanwhile, the powerful, inspiring photographs take us up
close and personal as we watch these delicate creatures.
With an artist's eye, Windle Turley shows us a single
Monarch on a bright yellow flower, or a tree draped with so
many Monarchs that the mind has to reconsider what it is
viewing to make sense of the scene. The Federal Police of
Mexico are shown slowing road traffic as a cloud of Monarchs
flies across the thoroughfare.
Nature notes explain how the eggs are laid under leaves of
the milkweed plant, ninety percent of the chosen plants
being in the common milkweed species. The butterflies chase
the newly flourishing plant north in a seasonal cycle
depending on latitude. Chemicals in the leaves do not harm
the caterpillars, which have found a way to store them so
their bodies are distasteful to birds. Migrating butterflies
may cover up to 150 miles in a day and may end up in Texas
or the corn belt. Threats to the Monarch include
environmental degradation, climate change, infestations of
pine bark beetles in their wintering grounds, pesticides,
weedkiller use on milkweed, and genetically modified corn
pollen that kills insects.
The end notes contain many sources for further research on
THE AMAZING MONARCH, should the spectacular pictures inspire
you to find out more about
their lives.
In The Amazing Monarch, author and photographer Windle
Turley chronicles the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.
Replete with page after page of full-color photographs, the
book shows the monarch’s rarely captured destination
wintering grounds. The contrast of the orange and black pops
off the page as the reader goes on a visual tour in the high
mountains of Mexico. The multifaceted work also contains
poems and quotations focusing on the beauty of these tiny
animals that weigh only.02 of an ounce.With carefully
researched text and consultation with leading entomologists,
The Amazing Monarch tracks the monarch’s migration and
interesting life spans. 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, each may contain 20 to 30 million
monarchs in a single site only a few acres in size.After
their stay in Mexico, it is crucial to head north to get
back to Texas and Louisiana and specific types of milkweeds
to lay their eggs during a critical three-week period. If
the monarchs reach their destination too early, frost on the
milkweed could kill the eggs. A late arrival may mean the
milkweed is no longer succulent.Returning from Mexico, the
fourth or fifth generations will now have lived nine months,
and before dying, will lay eggs during the last two weeks of
March. A female will lay 400 to 500 eggs during her
lifetime, and primarily on only one type of milkweed plant,
but only a small percentage of eggs will actually survive to
become adult butterflies. The offspring of the first
generation travel on to Kansas and Tennessee during April
where the female will again lay her eggs and die, after
having lived only 45 to 60 days. The process continues to
South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin in May and the Great Lakes
and Canada region in June. But the fourth or fifth
generation will not breed, lay eggs, or die; instead, they
head south in the late summer.Granted almost unprecedented
access by Mexican wildlife officials, Turley photographed
the insects in their natural habitats at their sanctuaries
in Los Saucos near Valle de Bravo, State of Mexico and at
the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary near Mineral de Anganguo, State
of Michoacan—areas unknown to outsiders until 1975.
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