It’s been nine years since Monarch Watch’s founding director Orley “Chip” Taylor officially retired from the University of Kansas, but bringing back the monarchs remains a top priority.
A project the octogenarian has worked on for more than eight months will come to fruition this weekend when a national audience gets the opportunity to witness Taylor and other local scientists’ contributions to conservation during a segment on the TV news magazine 60 Minutes scheduled to air at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 20 on CBS.
Taylor said via email that a small production crew attended last September’s annual monarch tagging event at the Baker Wetlands Discovery Center.
That’s when naturalists of all ages from Douglas County and beyond place a tiny sticker on the wings of monarch butterflies and record a few simple details to help Monarch Watch track the species on its way to overwinter in Mexico.
Later that September day, Taylor said, the 60 Minutes producer and crew visited the nonprofit’s homebase, located on KU’s west campus. The CBS crew filmed in the garden and labs and learned about rearing protocols of the monarch butterfly. Then on Sunday, they set up a virtual interview between Taylor at KU and correspondent Anderson Cooper in New York.
“The interview lasted an hour, and we covered a lot of ground,” Taylor said. “They typically use the voice recordings as ‘voice over’ for shots that illustrate what is being talked about.”
Cooper visited the mountainous forests of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve northwest of Mexico City. A teaser promoting the segment appeared on the April 13 edition of 60 Minutes and is posted on YouTube. It features Cooper and a guide in the middle of the forest surrounded by thousands of fluttering monarchs.
“You can actually hear the sound of butterfly wings,” Cooper said to his guide, who quietly acknowledged the observation. “Let’s just be quiet for a second.”
Taylor wasn’t present during the filming in Mexico, but he shared a few details.
“The weather was excellent, and the butterflies put on quite a show,” he said. “Anderson and the crew seem to have been impressed.”
The final cut will be a surprise, Taylor said.
“I did a lot a fact checking as the program was being edited but really have no idea of what is covered in the final edit,” he said.
If you miss the episode at 6 p.m. Sunday on CBS, try catching the segment later at cbsnews.com/60-minutes/.
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Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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