The Lifegivers

In Sumacó, Ecuador, Entomologists Jesse Barber and Akito Kawahara study the centuries-long evolutionary arms race between moths and bats. Moths have had to develop a wide range of bizarre and clever defenses to combat the threat of bats, from emitting toxic smells to jamming bats’ echolocation sonar with their thorax, Kawahara and Barber describe this fascinating battle in the night sky.

In one of the most singular migratory events in the animal world, monarch butterflies spend their winters in the fir forests of Michoacan, Mexico. It takes multiple generations to make this trip, and when the monarchs arrive they completely cover the fir trees of the high altitude forests. Conservationist Homero Gonzalez describes the meaning of these monarchs to the local culture.