The Magic of the Monarch Butterfly

After planting lots of plants to attract the bees to the garden I started to get more interested in planting plants to attract butterflies as well; see my earlier post on Encouraging Monarch Butterflies in the Garden. Seeing the Monarch going through its life-cycle from caterpillar to butterfly made me want to find out more about it.

That’s when I discovered the Monarch Butterfly New Zealand Trust.  The trust aims to “conserve New Zealand’s biodiversity so that our butterflies and moths, and their habitat are enhanced and protected to benefit present and future New Zealanders”.

Their website is an amazing resource of all sorts of information on Monarch butterflies and other NZ butterflies and moths.  There is information on plants for butterfly gardening, pests and predators, various butterflies and moths, and a range of educational resources available for sale including posters.  I bought a book on the Monarch Butterfly in NZ.

For $25 you can become a member and support their good works.  There is a very informative quarterly newsletter and members have access to past issues.  You can take part in a range of citizen science projects too.

The Trust has been running for 10 years and to celebrate they’re bringing the 3D film Flight of the Butterflies to New Zealand. This film has received rave reviews all around the world since it was first released a few years ago. And they are working hard to raise funds so that screenings for schools in New Zealand can be subsidised, making it more affordable for more school children to see the movie.

I was fortunate enough to attend the premier screening and it is an absolutely magical experience.  It is the sort of movie that 3D was made for – wonderful for kids and adults alike.  You can see and read more about it on the movie website including the film trailer.

“It’s a natural history epic. It’s a compelling detective story. It’s a scientific adventure at its best. It took Dr. Fred Urquhart almost 40 years to discover the monarch butterflies’ secret hideaway and prove the most incredible migration on Earth. Following the year-long annual migration cycle of the butterflies, the award-winning production team filmed hundreds of millions of monarchs in their remote overwintering sanctuaries in Mexico in 2011 and again in 2012 and also along their migratory routes from Canada, across the U.S. and into Mexico. The technology of IMAX® immerses you in the astounding migration experience as two generations of the butterflies migrate north and then a Super Generation miraculously finds its way from Canada to a few isolated mountaintops in Mexico – to a place it has never been!”