WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:04.160 Welcome. This is Marcia for RADIOI and to day I 2 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:08.080 will be reading National Geographic Magazine dated March twenty twenty five. 3 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:11.519 As a reminder, Radio Eye is a reading service intended 4 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:14.599 for people who are blind or have other disabilities that 5 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:18.359 make it difficult to read printed material. Please join me 6 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:21.839 now for the continuation of the article I began last time, 7 00:00:22.039 --> 00:00:27.359 entitled The Fight to Save the Desert's most Tenacious Bird 8 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:34.079 by Jessica Kutz. In each tent, PVC piping extends from 9 00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:37.280 the dirt, creating a six inch passageway to the human 10 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:41.200 made bureau. The tunnel measures about sixteen feet long and 11 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:44.560 descends to a depth of roughly four feet, which ensures 12 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:49.759 bureau's stakehool as outside temperatures increase. The tunnel connects to 13 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:52.960 a main den created by cutting a plastic fifty five 14 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.119 gallon drum in half to simulate the size of a 15 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:00.600 typical dwelling and owl might find in the wild. Thirty days, 16 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:03.320 the two birds inside each tent will be fed a 17 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:07.799 daily diet of three dozen of three frozen mice to share. 18 00:01:08.439 --> 00:01:11.439 Once the canopies are removed, volunteers will return for a 19 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:14.719 week to provide more snacks while the animals get accustomed 20 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:18.920 to their new hunting grounds. The idea for such specifically 21 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:23.840 engineered and executed translocations began more than three decades ago, 22 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:28.480 when avid conservationist Bob Fox and his now late wife 23 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:33.079 Sam were volunteering to help injure animals at an Arizona 24 00:01:33.159 --> 00:01:37.560 Game and Fish Department facility. In nineteen ninety one, Sam 25 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:41.560 was granted permission to foster a baby barn owl named Chia, 26 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:46.079 and the couple built a small aviary in their backyard. 27 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:48.680 When Chia was old enough, they were surprised to watch 28 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:53.840 him enthusiastically begin to foster displaced nestlings that required a 29 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.879 permit from both Arizona and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, 30 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:02.000 which encouraged the Foxes to open their own rehabilitation center, 31 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:06.079 a professional grade facility in the Phoenix suburb of Cave 32 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:11.319 Creek that houses hert raptors like barn owls, ospreys, and hawks. 33 00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:14.000 It had to become a passion because the work is 34 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:18.599 so involved, Fox says. The Fox's home phone became a 35 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:21.680 sort of twenty four hour hotline from people who discovered 36 00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:25.560 injured birds in Arizona. Burrowing owls are listed as a 37 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:29.080 species of concern, and the state's Game and Fish Department 38 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:34.719 has become proactive, recommending that construction sites be surveyed ahead 39 00:02:34.759 --> 00:02:39.240 of any building so owls can be removed. Over the 40 00:02:39.319 --> 00:02:42.240 past twenty years, Wild at Heart has grown to a 41 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:46.759 small staff and a larger volunteer cores, fielding increasingly frequent 42 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:51.080 calls for humane trapping and relocating. The idea for an 43 00:02:51.159 --> 00:02:55.560 artificial burrow came from Sam Fox. There was no mechanism 44 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:59.319 for relocations Bob Fox recalls, and so when they were 45 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:02.400 ready for relief, Sam said, well, you can't just toss 46 00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:05.319 them out. You've got to build something for them. The 47 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:09.719 rescue group ultimately designed nests that were inexpensive to build 48 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:13.360 and easy to install, but it faced a difficult learning curve. 49 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:17.240 One year, a single badger chewed through fifty burrows in 50 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:20.800 search of an easy meal. Another year, heavy rain led 51 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:25.479 to flooding, making the nests nests unlivable. The burrows now 52 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:28.680 feature mesh wire below the drum to protect the dens 53 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:32.240 from burrowing critters. Most of the pipe entrances are slightly 54 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:36.159 raised and surrounded by rocks, keeping them elevated in case 55 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:40.240 of flooding. The team also added wooden stake perches to 56 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:44.800 give the owls a spot above ground to scan for predators. However, 57 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:48.080 the real challenge happened once the tents came down. We 58 00:03:48.199 --> 00:03:52.639 had these puzzles, says Greg Clark, the nonprofit's habitat coordinator. 59 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:55.759 The owls would lay lots of eggs in the tents, 60 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:00.240 and everyone thought that was wonderful, except some eggs were 61 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:04.800 being abandoned, and no one really understood that. Several years ago, 62 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:09.639 the Fish and Wildlife Service had questions about habitat simulation efforts. 63 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:13.280 In twenty seventeen, an agency study of Wild at Heart's 64 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:18.279 practices compared one hundred twenty two nest sites, some translocated 65 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:24.399 with others in undisturbed areas that didn't require relocation. For 66 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:26.639 the next two years, Wild at Heart worked with an 67 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:31.519 independent team that included Martha Desmond, an ecology professor at 68 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:36.120 New Mexico State University, and David H. Johnson, founder of 69 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:41.120 the Global Owl Project, which provides evidence backed strategies to 70 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:45.040 help guide owl relocation. It turned out that Wild at 71 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:48.160 Heart had been placing too many owls together, six to 72 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:50.879 ten owls in the enclosures. That seemed to be a 73 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:53.680 big stressor for all of the owls and how well 74 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:58.160 the eggs would be brooded. Clark says relocating males in 75 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:02.480 breeding season marched to August caused another issue. The males 76 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:05.560 didn't have experience hunting in the area, and once the 77 00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:09.399 tents came down, the free mice disappeared. The females often 78 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:13.000 abandoned their nests in search of better partners. Everything crashes 79 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:17.360 and burns, says Johnson. All of this led to high fatalities. 80 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:22.639 By affixing radio transmitters to forty three translocated owls and 81 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:26.759 forty two resident owls, the researchers could track the fallout, 82 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:31.839 knowing that translocated birds always suffer higher mortality rates. In 83 00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:35.160 this case, the death toll among them recently moved was 84 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:39.560 more than double, with twenty four translocated owls dying compared 85 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:42.879 with eleven resident ones. It was not a good situation 86 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:47.000 at all, says dead Desmond, But the new data inspired changes. 87 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:50.959 Wild at Heart now uses smaller tents, spread farther apart, 88 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:54.879 and only pairs the owls. Those steps, plus the continuous 89 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:59.040 feeding schedule, demand a lot from volunteers to find sites 90 00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:02.399 that are protected from development and near good food sources. 91 00:06:03.079 --> 00:06:07.000 Clerk is looking beyond big population centers, making it difficult 92 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:11.079 to recruit people willing to drive. Being limited to certain 93 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:14.879 seasons for the releases is also a challenge because Waldette 94 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:18.360 Heart can't control how many owls it gets. Johnson, who 95 00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:23.279 conducts research with organizations around the world on translocation, says 96 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:25.920 that waldett Heart stands for the sheer number of owls 97 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:29.800 it receives. In a typical year, it has around two 98 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:32.759 hundred owls that need to be relocated, but in peak 99 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:35.879 home building years that average rises to more than two 100 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:39.879 hundred fifty. Lately, renewable energy has added to that pressure, 101 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:44.399 with over a hundred owls being relocated in the past 102 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:48.319 two years. Because of solar projects. Many relocation sites can 103 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:51.399 house only about fifty birds if the sites are full 104 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:55.639 Uprooted owls might stay longer in the aviaries, where they 105 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:59.839 may lose their fitness that can affect survivability when they're released. 106 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:03.160 In search of solutions, the team has begun to build 107 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:06.600 relationships with some of the solar developers that are moving 108 00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:11.600 into existing owl territory. Long Road Energy, a company developing 109 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:15.399 around ten thousand acres in the area, recently agreed to 110 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:19.879 leave thousands of acres undeveloped. It's also working with the 111 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:24.360 non profit to build new boroughs on designated land. Owls 112 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:27.800 are adaptable, Johnson says. We can be successful. We just 113 00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:30.720 have to think through our methods a lot more. That's 114 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:34.000 what's changing now. Two months after the tents were taken 115 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:39.800 down at Martin Farm, Jennon Reedon, a biologist at Wild 116 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:44.000 at Heart, drove across the dusty grassland, weaving between widely 117 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:47.800 spaced borough sites which were marked by their wooden stake purchase. 118 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:51.240 By now, the relocated birds should have fled or taken roost, 119 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:54.240 and below ground the owlets were getting ready to fledge. 120 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:57.959 Redon spotted something in the distance and slowly rolled to 121 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:01.759 a stop. Breezing her binoculars wore a better look. Through 122 00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:04.360 the lenses, she could see a family of owls, complete 123 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:07.839 with eager fledglings, stretching their wigs for some test flights 124 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:10.839 at five weeks. They don't necessarily leave, but they can 125 00:08:10.920 --> 00:08:14.360 fly well, Readen says, and if they know how to hunt, 126 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:17.439 then they'll be independent. On top of the burrol, a 127 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:21.439 juvenile owl stretched its wings while another got a running 128 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:24.759 start and took off in flight, completing a short loop 129 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:28.759 before returning to the ground. Because the fledgings weren't banded, 130 00:08:29.079 --> 00:08:31.040 it was hard to tell if they were the progeny 131 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:34.559 of the translocated owls, or perhaps owls from elsewhere in 132 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:37.840 the area. In a typical release, around a quarter of 133 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:41.840 translocated owls might stay and breed. They usually lay about 134 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:46.000 six eggs, the rate observed in non translocated owls, but 135 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:49.639 not all end up surviving. On average, a new owl 136 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:54.360 family can raise two juveniles, marking this making this family 137 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:57.799 one of the luckier ones. Inevitably, some owls move to 138 00:08:57.879 --> 00:09:01.120 natural burrols they liked better. That's part of why the 139 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:04.840 arid grasslands of Martin Farm were chosen in the first place. 140 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:08.759 The area has good proximity to natural burrow builders like 141 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:13.080 badgers and ground squirrels that still populate surrounding fields that 142 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:16.159 have yet to be developed. Crucially, none of the owls 143 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:18.799 were returned to the land they came from, which has 144 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:23.759 since transformed into construction sites for housing developments or solar fields. 145 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:28.120 Redent saw Cooper's hawk circling far above the little owls. 146 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:31.120 It was a potentially dangerous predator, but she didn't seem 147 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:35.279 concerned the family could always retreat underground or take their chances. 148 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:39.320 Offering them that opportunity felt like its own kind of success. 149 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:43.799 Burrowing owls in a booming megacity built on the flat 150 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:48.320 expanses of the Sonoran Desert, Metropolitan Phoenix is growing dramatically 151 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:52.519 as it absorbs farm fields and wild scrublands trained favored 152 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:55.720 by burrowing owls. In a unique effort to save the 153 00:09:55.799 --> 00:10:00.360 underground nesters, experts and volunteers have relocated hundreds of hours 154 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:05.440 away from encroaching development. Next. Hunting for my Father's Butterfly, 155 00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:08.399 a daughter's epic quest to find one of the world's 156 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:14.159 rarest butterflies, a species named for her father by Rena Effendi. 157 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.200 My father once told me that the average life span 158 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:21.639 of butterflies is seldom more than a few weeks. Obsessed 159 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:24.039 with them since he was a boy, he caught thousands 160 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:27.399 during his lifetime using pins and tweezers. He'd straighten their 161 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:30.799 wings on a wooden spreader, not a single antenna damaged. 162 00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:33.879 He'd then affixed the insects to a foam board by 163 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:38.200 piercing tiny needles through their thorax, and apply chemicals to 164 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:43.960 preserve their bodies and wings. He'd meticulously arrange butterflies and 165 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:47.440 moths according to their species and family in display cases. 166 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:50.559 With the help of a magnifying lens, he'd inscribed their 167 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:55.120 Latin names on labels smaller than a sunflower seed. Encased 168 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:59.440 in glass. His specimens glistened. My father, Rustam Effendi, was 169 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:04.799 a Soviet Azerbaijani lepidopterists, a pre eminent authority on butterflies 170 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:08.840 and moths of the Caucasas region. In my childhood home 171 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:13.120 in Baku, Azerbaizan, he was a rare guest. He spent 172 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.240 most winders hibernating in his studio apartment in a different 173 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.120 part of the city, waiting for the butterfly season to begin. 174 00:11:19.159 --> 00:11:21.919 In late spring. As soon as the last patches of 175 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:25.200 snow melted on the lower plains, he'd journey into the 176 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:29.080 mountains to study, hunt, and collect. He'd bring back cocoons 177 00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:33.919 in jars, caterpillars squirming in match boxes, and butterflies folded 178 00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:36.600 into envelopes, all of which he fussed over with the 179 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:40.559 keenness of a mother tending to her newborn. He dedicated 180 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:42.840 his life to his work and died in his mid 181 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:46.039 fifties when I was turning fourteen. I hardly knew my father. 182 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:50.360 My memories of him are disparate snippets, a collection of 183 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:54.240 faded photographs and conflicting accounts. Over the past three decades. 184 00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:58.120 As a journalist and photographer, I became fixated on reconstructing 185 00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:01.240 the story of his life. Years ago, I came across 186 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:04.759 his Wikipedia page and clicked on a link that led 187 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:08.279 me to a picture of a modestly colored butterfly. The 188 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:15.440 description underneath read Satirus efendi, species of the Nymphalidai family. 189 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:20.279 At the bottom of the page, I learned that Yuri Nekrutenko, 190 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:25.120 a Lepidopterus from Ukraine, discovered a new butterfly species in 191 00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:28.559 the Caucasas in nineteen eighty nine and named it in 192 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:32.080 honor of Rustom, his close friend and colleague. Later I 193 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:34.279 found out that Yuri had joked with my father at 194 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:37.399 the time, since you've only had daughters, your surname will 195 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:39.840 live on with a butterfly. Let's hope it does not 196 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:43.159 go extinct. But his namesake is perhaps one of the 197 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:46.759 rarest butterflies in the world. Only a single generation hatches 198 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:50.679 between mid July and mid August, flying in its mountainous 199 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:56.080 habitat ten thousand feet above sea level two withstand harsh conditions. 200 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:00.120 Setyrus efendi has furl like scales on its wings and 201 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.919 a dark brown color that may keep it warm. Its 202 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:07.039 most distinguishable physical trait is two black markings like eyes 203 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:10.320 with white pupils, each glaring from the center a corner 204 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:13.679 of the wings. For two weeks, the insect flutters over 205 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:18.240 the Zengezer Ridge, which spans a hundred miles across the 206 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:22.440 border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, two countries in the grips 207 00:13:22.440 --> 00:13:25.399 of a decade's long conflict. As one of the few 208 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:30.759 lepidopteras in Soviet Azerbaisan, my father captured numerous species, each 209 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:35.600 one stored at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Institute 210 00:13:35.799 --> 00:13:38.960 of Zoology in Baku, where he worked for more than 211 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:42.639 three decades. Many years have passed since, and much of 212 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:45.879 his collection is turning to dust. I searched for mentions 213 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:49.559 of Setyris efendi in scientific works he authored in his 214 00:13:49.639 --> 00:13:52.799 field journals and among the remaining specimens in his collection, 215 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:55.919 but found no trace of it. I concluded it was 216 00:13:55.960 --> 00:13:59.000 one of the only endemic species he hadn't caught. I 217 00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:03.159 wondered if I could my father's hunting grounds to find 218 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:06.720 the butterfly. I laid out a path retracing my father's footsteps, 219 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:10.039 consulting the maps he had made of the places he 220 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:13.320 had traveled, a research area that is now constrained by 221 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:16.759 the politics of the day. Despite his reputation as one 222 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:20.600 of the Soviet unions leading butterfly and moth experts, he 223 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:23.360 was never able to obtain a doctoral degree because he 224 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:27.720 adamantly refused to join the Communist Party. The decision narrowed 225 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:32.240 his career options. Authorities forbade him from traveling outside the USSR, 226 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.600 so instead he criss crossed his home region of the Caucasas, 227 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:40.519 making his maps with black dots to show where he'd hunted. 228 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:45.519 A constellation of them run along the southeastern mountains toward Armenia. 229 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:49.039 The world he traversed in those days has changed dramatically. 230 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:51.879 When he died in nineteen ninety one, the Soviet Union 231 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:54.519 was on the brink of collapse and wars loomed in 232 00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:58.159 the Caucasus. Today, the plains and mountain passes where he 233 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:01.200 had peacefully hunted more than forty e years ago would 234 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:05.279 be largely unrecognizable to him. These changes wrought by time 235 00:15:05.320 --> 00:15:10.279 and conflict, added new obstacles to my journey a hostile habitat. 236 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:13.519 Ideally I would have traveled over land from Azerbaijan to 237 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:16.919 Armenia as my father had, but the countries are now 238 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:20.679 bitter rivals, their borders sealed and militarized. Since the early 239 00:15:20.759 --> 00:15:25.120 nineteen nineties, they fought over control of Nagorno Carbash, an 240 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:28.720 autonomous region in the mountains of Azerbaijan home to a 241 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:32.759 majority ethnic Armenian population. In the thirty years of war 242 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:36.120 and occupation since the towns and villages my father regularly 243 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:41.840 visited had been reduced to rubble. The Zangaynzer Railway, his 244 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:45.519 main transportation across the plains, had long ago been dismantled, 245 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:50.960 its tracks repurposed as anti anti tank traps. Many of 246 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:54.159 the fields where he'd hunted for butterflies had been dug 247 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.399 out with trenches and littered with land mines. The conflict 248 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:01.360 is ongoing. Five years ago, Azerbaijan fought a forty four 249 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:06.279 day war to recapture the provinces surrounding Nigorno Karbak, which 250 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:10.000 it had lost to Armenia three decades earlier. A ceasefire 251 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:13.120 was broken by Russia and resulted in a handover of 252 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:17.200 large territories to Azerbaijan. Most recently, in the fall of 253 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:22.320 twenty twenty three, Agerbaijan captured the Autonomous Regions de facto 254 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:29.440 capital of Zenkendi Stepanokert, displaying displacing more than one hundred 255 00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:34.279 thousand of its ethnic Armenian inhabitants. To recreate my father's commute, 256 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:38.440 a petitioned top government agencies in both countries. After months 257 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:42.960 of negotiation, Azerbaijan gave me permission to approach the Armenian 258 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:46.919 border from its territory with a military escort. On this trip, 259 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:49.320 I got to see the same mountain roads where my 260 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:52.960 father traveled by bus or hitched car rides from strangers, 261 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:57.039 but I was never allowed to cross into Armenia clues 262 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:00.080 from the past. In spring of twenty twenty two, I 263 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:03.399 was finally permitted to fly to Armenia from Istanbul to 264 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:06.759 Yerevan on one of the first operated direct flights in 265 00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:09.359 two years. Ahead of the trip, I was curious if 266 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:11.359 there was some one on that side of the border 267 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:15.079 who still remembered my father. His former colleagues introduced me 268 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:21.279 to parkv Khazaryan, An ethnic Armenian taxidermist and insect collector. 269 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:24.799 A native of Baku, Parkhev sixty nine, now lives in 270 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:29.119 northern Armenia in his ancestor's remote village. Where I visited him, 271 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:31.640 we were like the two halves of the same apple, 272 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:34.079 he said of my father, who was twenty years older 273 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:38.119 than Parkhev, who is my teacher, my mentor. Parkhev had 274 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:41.839 fled to Azerbaizan amid ethnic tensions in nineteen eighty nine, 275 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:45.559 taking with him his most prized possession, eleven boxes of 276 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:50.200 preserved butterflies. In his sparsely furnished home, time appeared frozen 277 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:53.480 in the late eighteenth. In the late eighties, a bulky 278 00:17:53.559 --> 00:17:58.519 old Soviet Ukrainian refrigerator held his rhinoceros beetle collection in 279 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:01.559 one room. Under the bed. I noted a green canvas 280 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:04.960 backpack identical to my father's. The sight of it brought 281 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.920 back memories of him packing for his hunts, fitting his 282 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.839 whole life into a bag like this, Bottomless like a 283 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:15.839 magician's hat, it contained jars, lamps, vials, match books, a 284 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:19.240 set of tools to spread wings, strips of paper soaked 285 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:22.599 in cyanide, poisoned for the butterflies and so much more. 286 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:26.319 From a stack of duck dusty boxes, Parkhev pulled out 287 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:30.240 a pink one full of pinned butterflies. Two caught my attention, 288 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:34.480 satirus offending. The mail was still intact, large and deep brown, 289 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:38.319 with velvety, furry looking wings. Parkhev told me he caught 290 00:18:38.319 --> 00:18:41.240 the specimens on the Armenian side of the border, in 291 00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:45.720 the mountains of Vayot's Zoor in the summer of nineteen 292 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.559 ninety one, just a few months after my father died. 293 00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:51.000 It's not a coincidence. I caught it then, he said. 294 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:56.160 Roustam made himself known my father's tools. A few months 295 00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:58.880 later in the summer, I returned to Armenia, this time 296 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:02.039 to search for the butterfly with Parkv, where he'd found 297 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:04.680 the pear in his collection more than thirty years ago. 298 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:08.240 Together we've traveled up the Serpentine Road in the mountains 299 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.599 of kayatt Zor in the back of a Soviet Army 300 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:16.279 all trained vehicle. We combed the idyllic mountain plateau carrying 301 00:19:16.359 --> 00:19:20.039 translucent butterfly nets, round at the bottom, not pointy like 302 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:22.799 the regular kind. The net was attached to a bamboo 303 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:26.200 stick with a brass grip, just like my father's. This 304 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.119 is Rustom's technology. The net is in the shape of 305 00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:32.200 a woman's bra. You go whoosh like that, said Parkuev 306 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:34.839 as he swung it as the sun set behind the 307 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:37.960 jacked rocks. On our first day we left empty hamden 308 00:19:38.440 --> 00:19:41.759 Ah ross Dam. I hope you're watching us from up there, 309 00:19:41.799 --> 00:19:45.680 Parkev said, pointing theatrically toward the sky. We've arrived at 310 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:49.039 ere Parnassos. We returned to the same spot every day 311 00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:52.079 for a week, but the butterfly evaded us each time, 312 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:56.480 the mythical butterfly. Aside from Parkhev, there are only two 313 00:19:56.519 --> 00:19:59.480 other people alive today who are known to have encountered 314 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:02.960 Satir effendi in nature. One of them is a Russian 315 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:08.240 entomologist named Dmitri Morbun, who observed a small cluster as 316 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:12.720 recently as twenty sixteen flying over the Zangezer Ridge in 317 00:20:12.839 --> 00:20:19.559 the Nestivan Autonomous Republic and Azerbaizani Enclave bordering Armenia. For 318 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:23.400 three years, I enlisted Dmitri's help and expertise. It's a 319 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:26.680 truly mythical butterfly, said Dmitri, who told me my father's 320 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:30.799 work influenced his early career. The habitat is so remote 321 00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:34.880 and inaccessible most scientists refuse to believe it actually existed. 322 00:20:35.400 --> 00:20:38.319 Sertius efendi appears to have gone extinct in a few 323 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:41.440 of its early known habitats, including where it was first 324 00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:46.440 discovered by Yuri Nek Rutenko, and its threatened populations are 325 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:49.759 even more vulnerable because the rise in global temperatures has 326 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:53.640 forced shepherds to graze their flocks at higher altitudes than 327 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:56.240 the animals feed on the same cereals, as does the 328 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:59.799 butterfly species. After ascending the wrong part of the ridge 329 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:03.720 on the first attempt, I came back to Nassivan in 330 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:08.559 the summer by air, circumventing Armenia Armenian airspace by flying 331 00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:12.440 over Iran Dmitri joined me to identify the exact location 332 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:16.359 on Zeizer Ridge where he had found the butterfly several 333 00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:20.079 years ago. The steep seven hour climb parts gree part 334 00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:23.680 narrow goat trails was more arduous than my previous one. 335 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:27.039 I kept asking myself what am I doing? Unlike my father, 336 00:21:27.079 --> 00:21:29.240 who was at home in the mountains, I have felt 337 00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:32.160 more at ease in the city. About halfway through the climb, 338 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:35.599 my heart was beating frantically and I was dizzy with vertigo. 339 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:39.359 When we finally reached the top, there were no butterflies 340 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:42.880 in sight. As I recovered the following day, Dmitri speculated 341 00:21:42.920 --> 00:21:46.000 the shifting seasons made it difficult for us to predict 342 00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:50.279 the timing of their hatching. My discovery. For a third 343 00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:52.960 straight summer, I treked up the mountain in twenty twenty three. 344 00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:56.079 Muscle memory had formed over time, and I was fueled 345 00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:59.359 by my own stubbornness. Dmitrie accompanied me again, but on 346 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:02.440 this trip opted to bring back pack horses and set 347 00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:06.200 up camp for four nights. Temperatures dropped drastically after sunset, 348 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:09.319 and my tent flapped in the persistent wind. Every day 349 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:11.839 at dawn we ascended the ridge to hunt, and each 350 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:15.319 day we returned having seen nothing. After five days of this, 351 00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:17.880 I was exhausted. I had hardly slept, and I had 352 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.279 begun to come to peace with the idea that I 353 00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:23.640 would never seize a tearce offendi in flight. Yet I 354 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:26.920 also realized that my pursuit had achieved something else. It 355 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:29.519 had brought me closer to my father. I walked in 356 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:32.640 his beloved meadows and mountain peaks where I knew his 357 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:35.839 spirit roomed free. I met people whose faces lit up 358 00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:38.839 as they remembered him. I'd gotten to know his old friends, 359 00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:41.799 who opened a window into his life. I had come 360 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:43.720 to know him better than I ever did when he 361 00:22:43.839 --> 00:22:46.640 was alive. As Dmitri and I packed up the camp 362 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:49.319 on our last day, the sun suddenly appeared and the 363 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:52.519 wind subsided, so we decided to search one last time. 364 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:55.720 While hiking, we came across a single bush of stepa, 365 00:22:56.079 --> 00:22:59.559 an endemic feather grass, swaying gently in the wind, a 366 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:03.440 foods for the species caterpillars. The gray the grass was 367 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:07.200 a sign both hopeful and discouraging. We presumed more of 368 00:23:07.240 --> 00:23:10.680 it had been consumed by live stock. Around noon, we 369 00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:12.559 sat down for a break and I closed my eyes 370 00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:14.880 to rest. When I opened them, I saw a large, 371 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:18.920 dark insect rapidly flying twelve feet above me. It's him, 372 00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:22.400 it's him, I screamed, pointing. Dmitri sprang to his feet 373 00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:25.400 and ran in the direction of the northern slope, bouncing 374 00:23:25.400 --> 00:23:27.839 on rocks like a mountain goat. I ran after him, 375 00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:31.079 but couldn't keep up. Dmitri confirmed it was definitely my 376 00:23:31.240 --> 00:23:34.839 setyus Efendi. There was no doubt I spotted the male species. 377 00:23:35.279 --> 00:23:37.160 As I stood up on the spine of the ridge, 378 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:40.200 scanning the slope, it flew right over me once again. 379 00:23:40.599 --> 00:23:43.279 For a flash of a second, the brown shimmering wings 380 00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:46.559 appeared in stark contrast with the sky and the sand 381 00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:50.279 colored terrain. It's here, it's flying, I yelled again to Dmitri, 382 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:53.880 and we both watched it dive over the steeps Rocky 383 00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:59.640 Cascade and disappear farther down the slope. These next articles 384 00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:03.680 from in the April twenty twenty five National Geographic. Could 385 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:07.400 this really be the Holy Grail? By Becky Little? Lost 386 00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:10.200 for millennia and surrounded in mystery, the Holy Grail is 387 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:14.880 arguably the world's most elusive Christian relic, but for centuries, 388 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:18.720 clergy at Spain's Valencia Cathedral have believed a cup in 389 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:22.319 their possession is the Holy Chalice of the Lord's Supper. 390 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:26.559 Many variations exist in Grail lore, but a common theme 391 00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:28.960 is that it is the vessel used by Jesus at 392 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:31.680 the Last Supper and also used to catch his blood 393 00:24:31.720 --> 00:24:36.079 at the crucifixion. In these tellings, it's a sacred object 394 00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:39.640 sought by monarchs and king and knights like King Arthur 395 00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:43.200 and Sir Galahad to prove their purity and virtue. The 396 00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:48.279 Chalice of Valencia first appeared in Spanish historical accounts in 397 00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:51.680 thirteen ninety nine, when the monastery of San Juan de 398 00:24:51.799 --> 00:24:55.960 la Paiga bestowed it on King Martin of Aragon. One 399 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:59.519 of his successors, King Alphonso the Fifth, was likely the 400 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:02.079 first rus uller to suggest the cup was the Holy Grail. 401 00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:05.480