Chasing
Monarchs
on Both Sides of the Continental Divide
|
"The
'Berlin Wall' model of monarch migration was based on assumption
and repetition rather than fact," says Pyle. |
Author
and naturalist Dr. Robert Pyle traveled extensively on both sides of the
Continental Divide one year during fall migration, watching for migratory
monarchs. Whenever he found a monarch, he noted the direction it flew
and then chased its invisible path until he found another monarch. All
along the way, he interviewed the people he met and asked them when and
where monarchs had been seen. His book, "Chasing Monarchs" chronicles
his journey.
“By
physically traveling with the monarchs, day by day, north to south,
I hoped to shed a few lumens of light on several mysteries of the monarchs,”
he said.
Do
the Rocky Mountains truly form a barrier between the eastern and western
monarch populations? A
basic assumption of North American natural history was based on thin evidence,
concluded Pyle. The eastern and western monarch populations are not the
distinct entities scientists have long assumed.
|