For the Love of Butterflies

Flight of the Butterflies IMAX film, followed immediately by a lecture by Bill Toone in the Heikoff Giant Dome Theater.

This is a special event. No member vouchers, discounts, or coupons may be used.

Enjoy a special screening of Flight of the Butterflies on Tuesday night, followed by insights from monarch scholar and conservationist Bill Toone. Join us to hear more about the amazing monarch migration that takes these butterflies all the way to Eastern Canada and back, during which time four successive generations are born. Bill will share what can be done to protect the monarchs’ ancient forest home. He also has a wonderful love story connected with monarchs—his wife-to-be, Sunni, introduced him to their amazing migrations. He persistently courted Sunni, going so far as to get the Hidden Jungle built to showcase butterflies at San Diego Wild Animal Park … and now Bill and his wife haven’t missed a Mexican monarch migration in more than 25 years!

Watch the butterfly love story in Flight of the Butterflies, and then hear how Bill fell in love with butterflies—and how he convinced Sunni to fall in love with him! Admission includes access to the Fleet’s interactive exhibit galleries prior to the event.

About the Film:

Flight of the Butterflies is more than a mere movie about insects: It’s also a true love story. Born in Toronto, Fred Urquhart’s love of butterflies began as a boy. He became a zoology professor and married a fellow teacher and lover of butterflies, Norah Patterson. She took up his quest, and a partnership was born.

Fred and Norah founded the first Insect Migration Association, known today as Monarch Watch, enlisting thousands of volunteers across North America to tag hundreds of thousands of butterflies in order to track their migration route. The first citizen scientists in Mexico were Ken Brugger and his wife, Catalina Aguado—another pair of butterfly lovers. Under Dr. Urquhart’s direction, they spent almost two years seeking monarchs in the mountains west of Mexico City before finally coming upon millions of butterflies 10,000 feet above sea level in 1975. National Geographic featured the discovery in their August 1976 issue, and this incredible culmination of Dr. Urquhart’s search is recreated in Flight of the Butterflies.

About Bill Toone:

Bill Toone is the director of ECOLIFE and a widely recognized conservation biologist and spokesperson. Starting in the early phases of the California condor recovery program, he played a key role in the development of endangered species recovery strategies for what was North America’s most endangered bird. Later, as director of applied conservation programs for the Zoological Society of San Diego, his work carried him through a variety of conservation efforts all over the world. Today, as the founder and executive director of ECOLIFE, he has implemented a community-based conservation project that protects monarch butterfly habitat and directly improves the quality of life for communities within and surrounding Central México’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

Regular Gallery Admission + 1 Dome Theater Show prices apply:  $15.75 adults/$12.75 juniors and seniors for nonmembers; $10.75 adults/$9.00 juniors and seniors for members.