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[gently crashing waves]

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♪♪

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-It's always been such an
amazing story of resiliency

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of this little butterfly.

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It had been missing
for almost 100 years.

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And it was found and it was
identified as an Island Marble,

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not where they were expecting,
not where they were

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looking on a host plant,
which wasn't what

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they were expecting.

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And for me as an
entomologist, as a bug lover,

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having an animal that
is that resilient

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to be able to still be here
and to be not where people

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were expecting to see it
is exactly why I love

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bugs as much as I do.

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It's a very special
butterfly in a very special

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part of the world.

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♪♪

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[door creaks]

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Welcome to the lab.

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This project's really
exciting for us

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because we're doing
something new for the zoo.

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We got one that just
emerged from its chrysalis.

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Instead of bringing the animals
to the zoo, we're bringing

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our people to the landscape.

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And then we got another one.

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Two to three keepers that
are living on the island

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that are taking care of the
animals there on the island.

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Pretty sure it's ready to
go out, so that's exciting.

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And using their skill
set in a way that they

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have this skill set from
raising other butterflies.

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This is a female Island Marble butterfly.

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We can tell because her wings,
and they're yellow on the

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inside, on the lower wings.

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This is the pupal case.

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Decently sized butterfly emerged
from this tiny little pupa.

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There's a certain amount of
eggs that are collected on

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the landscape, and that
those eggs are brought into

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the lab to hatch.

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Eventually they emerge
out of their chrysalis,

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out of their pupa, and we put
them out onto the landscape.

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I'm going to take a
look at the wind speed,

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and yeah, everything's
looking pretty good.

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It's basically what we
call head starting.

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Come on!

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It's giving these animals
a chance to survive

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in a location with our help,
with lack of predators, with,

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you know, free from diseases,

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and so taking care of
them as best as we can

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to ensure their survival.

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♪♪ 

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Okay, yeah, this isn't
a bad spot at all.

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Oftentimes, why
butterflies are in trouble

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is for a handful of reasons,
from everything from climate

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change to pesticide use
and then just basically

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loss of habitat.

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It's pretty windy, girl.

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How you feeling?

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And so for this
particular butterfly,

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It likes prairie grasslands,
coastal grasslands

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that have some type of
mustard plant in them

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for them to lay their eggs
on, to have the larvae eat,

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and then eventually crawl off
of to pupate for the winter.

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Okay, you're happy there.

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Our hopes for her are
that she finds a mate.

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We released several males
here a few days ago,

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lay some eggs, and we restart,
we get a new generation.

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♪♪ 

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♪♪ 

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- This particular
butterfly is found

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on a very small
section of the island,

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and it has limited
habitat options.

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It's also a very
small population.

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So the idea is to
augment the population,

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to grow the population,
so that it naturally

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starts to expand out.

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And so in order to do
that, we have to make sure

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that the places where it's
going to expand out to

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are ready for that, which
means having the host plant

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that it needs, which are
various types of mustard.

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It is kind of that
classic story of build it

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and they will come.

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-Okay, so there's one on this
little mustard right here.

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You can see the little
egg right there.

84
00:04:01,783 --> 00:04:04,869
We've had Island Marble
come to this patch.

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00:04:04,869 --> 00:04:07,163
This is outside
of American Camp.

86
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They've come to this patch
now for five years in a row.

87
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And just last Friday, I found
over 50 eggs in this patch.

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That's what all this
flagging is that you see.

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I'm out here and I'm
actually tracking the

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development of each of those
individual eggs to see

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what the survivability
of the caterpillars are.

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There's a community
effort to have more plots

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of land converted to
have more host plants

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so that it's ready for when
this butterfly grows beyond

95
00:04:36,567 --> 00:04:39,362
the capacity and has the
choice to go somewhere else.

96
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There's been a lot of people
that have been involved in

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00:04:42,949 --> 00:04:46,077
this butterfly for a very long
time, including Amy Lambert at

98
00:04:46,077 --> 00:04:47,829
the University of Washington.

99
00:04:47,829 --> 00:04:51,291
Amy was able to do her PhD
work on this butterfly.

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-It is a resilient butterfly,
but it is still persisting

101
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in incredibly low
numbers for a butterfly.

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I'm hopeful that that will
change, but it is still

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an endangered animal.

104
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-The Woodland Park Zoo has
an incredible experience

105
00:05:07,140 --> 00:05:09,976
and expertise in captive
rearing of butterflies.

106
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And the population picked up
because of the captive rearing,

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and it's been steady, I would
say, generally since then.

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And there she goes.

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-We're working with U.S.

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Fish and Wildlife,
Washington Department

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of Fish and Wildlife,
National Park Service.

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There's the monitoring
that Washington Department

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of Fish and Wildlife is
doing in conjunction

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with National Park Service.

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So there's just,
there's a lot of people

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bringing their own
unique talent to this.

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It's gonna be super
helpful to help support

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and save this butterfly
in the long run.

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It's there, it has a
part of the ecosystem

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and it's our job to make
sure that that ecosystem

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stays as dynamic as it
can to support that life.

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And someday it'll be fine and it

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won't need our help because
it'll be happy and thriving

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on its own.

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Yeah you're a
good-looking butterfly.

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Go find a female.

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Amazing butterfly in a beautiful

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place with a community of
people that care deeply

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for it and we feel so
lucky to be a part of that

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community and to be able
to help this butterfly.

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♪♪ 

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♪♪

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-Watch CityStream Tuesday
nights at 7 on the 

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the Seattle Channel, 
or find us anytime online

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at SeattleChannel.org.

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♪♪

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♪♪