People in California have witnessed a captivating natural phenomenon this past month, as millions of butterflies are migrating through their state.
Every year, these beautiful black-and-orange butterflies, called painted ladies, travel from the deserts of Southern California to the Pacific Northwest. What makes this year special, is the number of the butterflies that appeared. Scientist say that a migration this big, hasn’t been seen ever since 2005, when about 1 billion of these beautiful insects traveled north.
Professor Shapiro, who has been studying butterfly migrations in California for more than 40 years, is also surprised by this event. “The striking thing is they’re moving very rapidly and directionally. So it’s almost like being in a hail of bullets.”
So what caused this unusual event in California? According to researches, the reason for this super bloom, as it’s called, is unreasonable rain in the deserts near the Mexican border, where these insects lay their eggs.
Pictures of the magnificent butterfly explosion are taking over social media, so scroll down to see some of them.
