Of Bombs and Butterflies | Radiolab Podcast

From the Radiolab podcast: A tiny butterfly thought to be going extinct thrives on an artillery range. Are the bombs actually helping it survive?
Ecologist Nick Haddad was sitting in his new office at North Carolina State University when the phone rang. On the other end of the line was the U.S. Army. The Army folks told him, “Look, there’s this endangered butterfly on our base at Fort Bragg, and it’s the only place in the world that it exists. But it’s about to go extinct. And we need your help to save it.”
Nick had never even heard of the butterfly, the Saint Francis' satyr. In fact, he barely knew much about butterflies in general. Nonetheless, he said yes to Uncle Sam. “How hard could it be?” he wondered. Turns out, pretty hard. He'd have to trick beavers, dodge bombs, and rethink the fundamental nature of life and death in order to rescue this butterfly before it disappeared forever.
This episode was reported by Latif Nasser, and produced by Rachael Cusick. Original music by Jeremy Bloom. Mixing by Arianne Wack.
Special thanks to: Snooki Puli, Cita Escalano, Jeffrey Glassberg, Margot Williams, Mark Romyn, Elizabeth Long, the Public Affairs and Endangered Species Branches at Fort Bragg.
Want to learn more?
• Read Nick Haddad’s book "The Last Butterflies: A Scientist’s Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature" - press.princeton.edu/books/har...
• Take a peek at Thomas Kral’s original 1989 paper about the Saint Francis' satyr - images.peabody.yale.edu/lepso...
• Visit Fort Bragg's webpage about the Saint Francis' satyr - home.army.mil/bragg/index.php...
Illustration by Atieh Sohrabi - / atieh.sohrabi
Video produced by Kim Nowacki & Sahar Baharloo.
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[@jaybrown4753]

2:03 I'm all in. You always have curiosity provoking intros.

[@blackbird163]

Great job as always radiolab. 👏 love what you do and the stories you bring❣keep up the great work Nick with trying to save the butterflies 🦋

[@harpodjangorose9696]

Butterflies have plot armor.

[@bethannsmith4969]

Interesting. ☑️ I vote help it.

[@Csteiner57]

What did saving that butterfly do to the birds of flight?

[@babydragon1637]

💙🖤💙🦋💙🖤💙

[@Csteiner57]

Where’s the episode about freeing the whale from the net? Bring back jad and whoever help narrate this episode.