<< Back Conservation News Dr. Brower's Research Just Published   It's always said that monarch butterflies go to the same dozen wintering sites in Mexico every year. But how do scientists know? For the first time, two scientists flew over the overwintering region to verify from the air what they had seen on the ground for the past 30 years. "Based on the observations on the ground, the prediction was that monarchs are always going to be in the same place. But I didn’t think that was true because there are a lot of places that look like they have the right habitat," explained Dr. Lincoln Brower. Listen to Dr. Brower describe the research that he and his NASA colleague, Dan Slayback, just published. You can read the original scientific paper — and see if you can see butterflies from an airplane. Interview With Dr. Brower: Transcript "Dan Slayback, my NASA colleague, and I would fly over the entire biosphere reserve and all the areas around it where we know colonies occur. We were very fortunate to have the environmental non-government organization called “Lighthawk” which has pilots who volunteer for environmental reconnaissance flights. Dan and I actually flew all over the area looking for colonies. Looking down you can see monarchs flying and if you see them flying you know you’re near a colony. Or, if the weather is right, you’ll see the whole colony standing out like beautiful golden glow on the oyamel trees in the background. "We were basically testing the scientific hypothesis that, based on 30 years of locating these colonies always in the same places (there are 12 mountains they occur on). We thought, based on just looking at the maps and looking at the altitude and looking at forest, that there would be, maybe, 25 sites that we could find. But the fact of the matter is that we ONLY found them in the areas where we knew where they have been, year after year, going back to 1976. "What that says is that the preservation of these sites is absolutely necessary if we’re going to be able to keep this migratory phenomeon going because there’s so much deforestation and some of it has actually wiped out these previous sites so butterflies can no longer go there. "This basically is a scientific experiment. Based on the observations on the ground, the prediction was that monarchs are always going to be in the same place. But I didn’t think that was true because there are a lot of places that look like they have the right habitat, the right altitude, the right slopes, and all the characteristics of those sites where we have found them –there are LOTS of those places. Not a SINGLE one of those places did we find butterflies. ONLY in the areas where they go to, year after year. "One of the things about flying experience, and working with Dan, who is able to make incredible maps even in three dimensions of the whole butterfly area, is that I have a much greater sense of what’s going on down there in Mexico than I ever had before." Photo by Don Davis Listen >> An Interview with Dr. Brower   Read >> Dr. Brower's Scientific Paper   Try it! >> Can you see a monarch colony from an airplane?