Awesome Butterflies

Insects are weird, so we’re not surprised by some of the strange things we learned about butterflies and moths in this video from Ze Frank. Lepidoptera are attractive prey for birds, reptiles, wasps, and other animals. To help survive against these threats, these insects have evolved defenses, including unpredictable flight patterns, toxins, and mimicry.

VFX artist and filmmaker Buttered Side Down caught a monarch butterfly and placed it in a jar to admire its beauty. But nothing is simple in BSD’s wacky universe, and a swarm of the colorful insects would prefer that he releases their friend from captivity.

Nature photographers John Downer Productions flew a realistic, robotic hummingbird deep into a forest packed with hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies. The drone captured amazing footage of the swarm as they awoke from their long winter’s nap in Mexico. From the BBC Series Spy in the Wild.