Radiolab

Of Bombs and Butterflies


Listen Later

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. 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.

**CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Army moved a beaver; in truth, they killed it.  We also overstated the current tally of St Francis Satyrs off range; they are around 200, not 800. The audio has been adjusted to reflect these changes.**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, Laura Verhegge, the Public Affairs and Endangered Species Branches at Fort Bragg.

Want to learn more? you can ...... read Nick Haddad’s book The Last Butterflies: A Scientist’s Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature... take a peek at Thomas Kral’s original 1989 paper about the Saint Francis Satyr... visit Fort Bragg's webpage about the Saint Francis Satyr 

Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate   

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

RadiolabBy WNYC Studios

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

41,877 ratings


More shows like Radiolab

View all
Science Friday by Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science Friday

6,074 Listeners

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! by NPR

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

38,692 Listeners

This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,613 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,151 Listeners

The Moth by The Moth

The Moth

27,309 Listeners

Snap Judgment by Snap Judgment and PRX

Snap Judgment

11,531 Listeners

Planet Money by NPR

Planet Money

30,974 Listeners

Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,085 Listeners

99% Invisible by Roman Mars

99% Invisible

26,168 Listeners

TED Radio Hour by NPR

TED Radio Hour

22,123 Listeners

Invisibilia by NPR

Invisibilia

21,689 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,482 Listeners

Science Vs by Spotify Studios

Science Vs

11,983 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,044 Listeners

Throughline by NPR

Throughline

15,941 Listeners

Dolly Parton's America by WNYC Studios & OSM Audio

Dolly Parton's America

16,345 Listeners

The Other Latif by WNYC Studios

The Other Latif

465 Listeners

Radiolab for Kids by WNYC

Radiolab for Kids

1,012 Listeners