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Pyle's classic account of discovery along the migration trail of monarch butterflies is part natural history, part road trip adventure Although no one had ever followed North American monarch butterflies on their annual southward journey to Mexico and California, in the 1990s there were well-accepted assumptions about the nature and form of the migration. But to Robert Michael Pyle, a naturalist with long experience in monarch conservation, the received wisdom about the butterflies' long journey just didn't make sense. In the autumn of 1996 he set out to uncover the facts, to pursue the tide of "cinnamon sailors" on their long, mysterious flight. Chasing Monarchs chronicles Pyle's 9,000-mile journey to discover firsthand the secrets of the monarchs' annual migration. Part road trip, part outdoor adventure, and part natural history study, Pyle's book overturns old theories and provides insights both large and small regarding monarch butterflies, their biology, and their spectacular migratory travels. Since the book's first publication, its controversial conclusions have been fully confirmed, and monarchs are better understood than ever before. The Afterword for this volume includes not only updated information on the myriad threats to monarch butterflies, but also various efforts under way to ensure the future of the world's most amazing butterfly migration. … (más)
Robert Michael Pyle set out to answer three questions about monarch butterflies:
How do they physically do the migrating that they do?
Do they navigate or follow the wind? and lastly,
Why do some monarchs end up in Mexico and others in California.
Much like Where Bigfoot Walks, Chasing Monarchs is all about chasing something elusive, something nearly impossible to track. Like Bigfoot, Chasing Monarchs is awash with lush descriptions of the landscapes Pyle traverses; this time British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Nevada and California with a little dip into Mexico. I find it amazing that Pyle was able to tag butterflies without hurting them! I just wish his book included photographs. ( )
This is exactly what the title says. A standard map of migrating monarchs shows the eastern monarchs going to Mexico, and the western monarchs going to California. The author set out to follow western monarchs, starting in Washington, according to a set of rules: follow a monarch as far as it can be seen, when it disappears keep going in the same direction until another monarch appears, repeat. Of course the rules are incomplete. What if there are two monarchs going in different directions? What if there are zero monarchs for hundreds of miles? A bit of tweaking kept the spirit of the enterprise. He ended up in Mexico, indicating that the monarchs are not adhering to theoretical purity. Along the way, well, he went here, he went there, he met this naturalist friend, he met that naturalist friend, he saw this butterfly, he saw that butterfly. Not much structure or context; what I learned has been stated in the previous sentence. Well, also that monarchs are sparse; there is a map of his 20 sightings over 7 states.
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
I feel drawn south again, into wild, fragrant places. -- Vladimir Nabokov, letter to his mother, Elena Nabokov, August 15, 1929
What I wanted was guidance, a system of telemetry to ease the tension of not knowing what happens next. -- Alison Denning, from #54, The Monarchs: A Poems Sequence
It is long after sunset when I look up in the twilight and see a monarch flying overhead, a small, black fluttering form against the fading glow in the sky. It is headed south. -- Edwin Way Teale, A Walk Through the Year
But most of all I shall remember the Monarchs, that unhurried westward drift of one small winged form after another, each drawn by some invisible force.... Did they return? We thought not; for most at least, this was the closing journey of their lives. -- Rachel Carson, letter to Dorothy Freeman, September 1963
Dedicatoria
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
For Thea
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
No orange shows in the tall firs.
Citas
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
In the meantime, the flight of this one butterfly of passage on her "wings of flame, rising to the sun," this vision of Danae touched by the golden rain, has made by journey whole.
Pyle's classic account of discovery along the migration trail of monarch butterflies is part natural history, part road trip adventure Although no one had ever followed North American monarch butterflies on their annual southward journey to Mexico and California, in the 1990s there were well-accepted assumptions about the nature and form of the migration. But to Robert Michael Pyle, a naturalist with long experience in monarch conservation, the received wisdom about the butterflies' long journey just didn't make sense. In the autumn of 1996 he set out to uncover the facts, to pursue the tide of "cinnamon sailors" on their long, mysterious flight. Chasing Monarchs chronicles Pyle's 9,000-mile journey to discover firsthand the secrets of the monarchs' annual migration. Part road trip, part outdoor adventure, and part natural history study, Pyle's book overturns old theories and provides insights both large and small regarding monarch butterflies, their biology, and their spectacular migratory travels. Since the book's first publication, its controversial conclusions have been fully confirmed, and monarchs are better understood than ever before. The Afterword for this volume includes not only updated information on the myriad threats to monarch butterflies, but also various efforts under way to ensure the future of the world's most amazing butterfly migration.
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Much like Where Bigfoot Walks, Chasing Monarchs is all about chasing something elusive, something nearly impossible to track. Like Bigfoot, Chasing Monarchs is awash with lush descriptions of the landscapes Pyle traverses; this time British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Nevada and California with a little dip into Mexico. I find it amazing that Pyle was able to tag butterflies without hurting them! I just wish his book included photographs. (