Jennifer Bové - Ranger Rick: I Wish I Was a Monarch Butterfly

What if you wished you were
a monarch butterfly?
Then you became a monarch.
Could you fly like a monarch?
Eat like a monarch?
Start your life as a caterpillar?
And would you want to? Find out!

Where would you live?
Monarchs spend their summers
in the United States and Canada.
They live in grasslands and gardens
where wildflowers grow.
Milkweed is their favorite plant.
In the fall, the monarchs fly south
to spend winter in California
and Mexico.

Would you like to
live here?

How would your life begin?
Every monarch butterfly
starts life as a tiny egg.
In spring and summer,
monarch moms lay eggs
on milkweed plants.
Then they fly away.

Monarch egg

In just a few days, the egg hatches
and a small caterpillar crawls out.
It will become a butterfly,
but it does not have wings just yet.

What would you eat as a
caterpillar?
Monarch caterpillars eat only
milkweed leaves.
They eat so much and grow so fast
that they must shed their skin
when it feels too tight.

Shedding means they crawl
out of a thin layer of skin.
This caterpillar is leaving
its small skin behind.

Do you shed your clothes
as you grow bigger?

How would growing up change you?
After two weeks of growing,
a caterpillar is about the size
of your index finger.

Would you like to grow
up inside a chrysalis?

When a caterpillar is ready
to change into a butterfly,
it grows a hard shell.
The shell is called a chrysalis.
It hangs from a leaf or twig.

Big changes are happening
inside the chrysalis.
The caterpillar will become
a monarch butterfly
in about two weeks.

When the butterfly breaks through
the hard shell of the chrysalis,
its wings are soft and wet.
When the wings dry,
the monarch can fly.

How will you change
as you grow up?

What would you eat as a butterfly?
Adult monarchs dont eat leaves
the way caterpillars do.
They feed only on sweet liquid
from milkweed and other flowers.
This liquid is called nectar.

Do you sip juice
through a straw?

A monarch sips flower nectar
with a thin tube called a proboscis.
The proboscis is not a tongue.
It is the butterflys mouth.

How would you wash up?
Monarchs dont need to take baths.
But they do sunbathe to warm up.
Butterflies need to be warm
in order to fly.
Butterflies spread their wings
to soak up the suns warmth.
This is called basking.

Would you like to stay clean
without taking baths?

How would you talk?
Monarchs do not make noises.
They communicate with color.
A monarchs bright colors
tell other animals, Im poisonous!
Eating a monarch will make
an animal feel sick.
Then it wont want to eat another.

Where would you sleep?
Monarchs rest in trees
or bushes at night.
In the morning, butterflies bask
in sunlight to warm up
and start a new day.

Where would you travel?
The last monarchs to change
from caterpillars to butterflies
at the end of the summer
migrate south.

Monarchs can fly
over two thousand miles
on their fragile wings!
They face many dangers
while migrating.
It is a long and tiring trip.

Have you ever gone
on a long trip?