Friday, April 13, 2012

Butterfly Wreck


A small tragedy. 
See it? Hanging onto the leaf? A butterfly wreck. And here’s part of a wing. Bird strike I think.
What makes you blame a bird?
Cats can’t climb up there. My hypothesis is that the butterfly was feeding on the flowers, and a bird swooped, but didn’t like the taste. Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, very alkali. Predators don’t like the taste.
Didn’t help that one.
No, the attacker didn’t like the taste, spat him out, but by that time the damage had been done. Death of a butterfly.
__________
Voice-over
A small tragedy in nature. Pity the butterfly was mistaken for food.  A death in vain. Needless. Not easy persuading everyone that the decline in beautiful species is bad for the planet.

Some butterflies escape with only damaged wings. These can be repaired. There is an instructive video showing how to repair monarch butterfly wings at live monarch.

Not everyone feels butterflies are inconsequential fluttering ephemera. Some attach symbolic significance to them. Others regard them as important scientific phenomena
Long live monarchs! Butterflies that is!
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if butterflies feel pain when their wings are cut off? We think of butterflies as beautiful creatures but we avoid thinking about what happens to them at the end of their lives. Just as we avoid thinking about what happens at the end of our lives.

Barry Natusch said...

Oh. Yes. Avoiding thinking about what happens when beauty fades. Avoiding thing about what happens to us at the end of life. Avoidance behavior. It's self defence. We all do it.