The Butterflies That Bring Back the Dead
Every year, around the Day of the Dead, millions of orange butterflies arrive in the mountain forests of Mexico. Many people believe they carry the souls of the dead.
What was reported
Each autumn, monarch butterflies fly up to 4,000 kilometres from Canada and the United States to a few mountain forests in central Mexico, arriving in late October and early November. They cover the fir trees so thickly that branches bend under their weight.
Their arrival comes at the time of the Day of the Dead, when families welcome back the spirits of those who have died, and in local tradition the butterflies are those souls returning.
Explanations offered
The monarchs migrate to escape the northern winter; no single butterfly makes the round trip, so how they find these same few forests is still being studied. Scientists only found the wintering sites in 1975, though local people had always known them.
- When
- Every autumn
- Where
- Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Michoacán, Mexico
- Witnesses
- The people of Michoacán
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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