Ran into a very active two together in Northern VA today near the Potomac River. One left and the other just tagged along with me. Seemed curious enough to land on me standing there a few times. Was remarkable to see a butterfly on March 29th....glad you put this video up. I was able to get several selfies with this one from today. First time in three years I ever saw one...was surreal.
I was accosted by mourning cloak butterflies for over 2 years after my fiance passed way. I'd never seen one before or heard of it. I googled it by its appearance. Suddenly they were spiraling around me when walking our dog, going out onto my deck, the first one landed on my deck when i was crying.believe me when I tell you also, they would find me everywhere! They would land on the parking lot, the sidewalk, on and on. Spiral around me sometimes from feet to head. That was 9 years ago. Now my father died 3 months ago, I have not seen those butterflies in years. I'm in the same area out in nature as always. Yesterday while walking the dog 2 of them accosted us , flew around us and landed and sat on the sidewalk several times and followed us. 😮
Love these butterflies. As a kid growing up in the outskirts of Los Angeles (Pomona, California) in the 60's, while things were still a little rural, we used to catch the Mourning Cloak caterpillars and put them in a jar with peach tree leaves. When they would emerge as a butterfly, we would release them. A favorite childhood memory. Now this area is heavily developed and almost all the rural areas are gone and I very rarely grab a glimpse of these butterflies now. We also used to catch Pacific tree frog tadpoles from a nearby creek. Now that creek is a cement flood control channel. Makes me really sad.
Good news, i'm in East LA and have dozens of these guys on my property, currently in metamorphosis. We have a lush garden for them to thrive, thankfully it hasn't gotten to a point where we need to control them. They're still getting by somehow.
A few days ago , on the 27th of March, here in NYC , I saw my first Butterfly of the season in my backyard- it was a Mourning Cloak. It flew by me, and landed nearby. What a thrill ! It's ONLY MARCH !
They are so interesting. They have the most unique eggs, the caterpillars are venomous, they play dead and their name is because they resemble a mourning cloak used for grieving. Their spiritual meaning is death and grief. Seems that death surrounds them, but they can go into a stasis that allows them to resurrect from extremely cold temperatures
I just found this channel and I'm so happy! Eager to learn more about these beautiful animals. The quality of these videos is amazing and i'll probably spend the rest of the week (and more) watching all your videos. Thank you for doing this.
Great video! No, we don't think you're crazy - these mourning cloaks are pretty remarkable! How do you collect so many of them? We haven't seen one around here for a long time.
I didn't know they went that far North. That means they can survive well below -10. How cold do you all get there on an average year? Mourning Cloaks are one of the butterflies I raise, so I have good quantities on a regular bases.
Unless it's a different species, but we're pretty sure it's this one, although we can't remember seeing one in years. -10F is -23C and the last few years we've dipped down to -40C for longer periods.
@@fourseasonsnorth Wow, that's pretty cool (literally;-). It probably is the same specie. There are not many other butterflies that look similar in your area.
I've very rarely seen those butterflies. I mostly just see the Carolina Grasshoppers that look similar to those when in flight (hence one of their nicknames being the "Butterfly Grasshopper").
My family found one between trees in Mirror, Alberta!!! It's absolutely beautiful! Thank you for informing me about all the great facts about this butterfly. 😀
So! we actually found one of these butterflies today as were bucking up a May Day tree in town! The butterfly kind of woke up, slowly moving it's wings, but didn't fly and didn't really walk (it looked really fat!). Hadn't seen one for so long and we couldn't just leave it there on the ground waiting to be squashed, so we folded its wings and put it in a paper bag and kept it cool (like what you showed us in your last video). The weather's been down to -13C already up here but today it was around 5C. Is there a good place you think we should put it for the winter so that it might survive?
That's awesome that you found one! They eat a lot before they go dormant, so it makes sense it was fat. I am sorry I just saw your comment, but if you still have it here is what I would do. Try to find a sheltered spot that has a lot of cracks or crevices for it to crawl in. A perfect spot would be a pile of wood (fire wood or cut lumber). Inside an open barn, or under snow would be the best bet.
Great, thank you! We had put it under the house where it stays a bit warmer (not heated though) and is protected from the elements. It's supposed to be a very cold winter. Would be kind of like a barn, only with a dirt floor. Hopefully a mouse doesn't eat it or something. Hope you all are doing well.
@@fourseasonsnorth That should be a good place! And your winters are always cold lol. It has almost hit 80 the last 3 days here. If you ever run into something like this again email me. I check that a lot more frequently. My email address is: jvh440@yahoo.com
When I was a kid I saw all these caterpillars on this one tree so I collected them in to large plastic containers. Then they made themselves in to cocoons, it was so cool. One cocoon fell and that butterfly had some blood on it but it still flew. It was awesome looking at them. But I was wondering, does it sting your skin if you tough one of these caterpillars? I remember touching a cocoon and feeling a sting.
Thank you for this video. I was hiking on the beach of Lake Superior in Pictured Rocks and saw several doing this. I assumed they were dead. I don’t understand why they did not flee me as I was approaching them. They had plenty of time. Why were they standing out in the open on a beach?
Playing dead seems to be driven more by Instinctual response than it does from stress or panic. They stayed pretty chill throughout the whole thing, and did not seem scared or even in a hurry to get away once they started waking up.
I found a butterfly today and he/she played dead after I picked it up and put it down. This butterfly can’t fly as it lost some of the scales on the tip of one wing. I’d like to fix it so it can fly again, do you have any idea on what materials I can use to either cut out a bit and mimic scales or a bit to glue on the wing so that the wing will work again?
@@stealthis I actually did!!!! In the end what happened was that the butterfly must have been tired, and the damage to the wing was small and didn’t cause any issues after all luckily. So I kept the butterfly in a plastic box with no lid all day and overnight, and I fed it with fresh fruit and honey water. In the morning it started stretching the wings and open and close them for a while and then it flew out of the box. So I quickly caught it again and brought it outside and it flew high and freely!!! I was very happy I was able to keep it safe til it was ready to go. It was a beautiful experience for me to be able to see it eating and drinking and sleeping. Amazing! Thank you for asking xxx
I found a damaged mourning cloak unable to fly a week ago in San Diego. I have been caring for it for a week with water fruit and flowers. He hasn’t moved in almost a day but he is alive. Is he trying to hibernate? Would love advice on how to care for him.
Imagine going into a forest full of those butterflies and then hitting a tree full of butterflies with a stick and then they just rain down playing dead
Hello, I hope you see this, I have noticed a similar activity in a type of butterfly in my area but I have a different theory. Do you have any knowledge about Gulf Fritillaries?
Found an injured one while walking my dog in Santa Ana 🍊 California. I picked it up by its wings and it never played dead I placed it on a flower and next morning the wings were wide opened and it was completely still now I’m here to see if it is playing and I’m very sad to see when playing they don’t spread their wings 🥺
It is indeed, good catch! The scientific name is Nymphalis antiopa, and lives in both North America and Europe. You can substitute Scandinavia for Canada in the temperature comparison;-)
Hello john this is rui from portugal, i collect butterflies and im struggling to get antiopa, i tried to find catterpilars on birtches wallows without success, can you please you send one or even a dead one? Thanks
I would not encourage people picking up butterflies. What is awesome is that this species overwinters in fallen leaves. The problem is that people tend to rake up all of the leaves on their yards in the fall not realizing that critters such as the mourning cloak need the leaves to overwinter in. We push our leaves off the grass and onto the beds.
I really hope these moths aren't considered an invasive species at the rate they just fly off from this guy. Hopefully they don't decimate the local trees and plantlife.
The greatest phallacy of the animal kingdom is that opossums "play dead." They actually faint from fear, a physiological reaction, not maladaptive behavior. So might be the case with Mourning Cloak Butterfly. Let's put it this way-- if something 100 times your size reached for you, you'd probably faint, too.
Sorry! The Mourning Cloak is a member of the brushfoot family, so prefer fermented fruit over flowers (although will eat both). The favorite host plants for the cats are Willow and Elm.
It's strangely cute
I also find it cool how the bottom of their wings are even designed to look like the texture and colour of bark
That is pretty cool, and a perfect design because they often overwinter in the bark of trees.
Ran into a very active two together in Northern VA today near the Potomac River. One left and the other just tagged along with me. Seemed curious enough to land on me standing there a few times. Was remarkable to see a butterfly on March 29th....glad you put this video up. I was able to get several selfies with this one from today. First time in three years I ever saw one...was surreal.
I was accosted by mourning cloak butterflies for over 2 years after my fiance passed way. I'd never seen one before or heard of it. I googled it by its appearance. Suddenly they were spiraling around me when walking our dog, going out onto my deck, the first one landed on my deck when i was crying.believe me when I tell you also, they would find me everywhere! They would land on the parking lot, the sidewalk, on and on. Spiral around me sometimes from feet to head. That was 9 years ago. Now my father died 3 months ago, I have not seen those butterflies in years. I'm in the same area out in nature as always. Yesterday while walking the dog 2 of them accosted us , flew around us and landed and sat on the sidewalk several times and followed us. 😮
Love these butterflies. As a kid growing up in the outskirts of Los Angeles (Pomona, California) in the 60's, while things were still a little rural, we used to catch the Mourning Cloak caterpillars and put them in a jar with peach tree leaves. When they would emerge as a butterfly, we would release them. A favorite childhood memory. Now this area is heavily developed and almost all the rural areas are gone and I very rarely grab a glimpse of these butterflies now. We also used to catch Pacific tree frog tadpoles from a nearby creek. Now that creek is a cement flood control channel. Makes me really sad.
Good news, i'm in East LA and have dozens of these guys on my property, currently in metamorphosis. We have a lush garden for them to thrive, thankfully it hasn't gotten to a point where we need to control them. They're still getting by somehow.
idk about “controlling” any butterflies given how pollinators are struggling…
A few days ago , on the 27th of March, here in NYC , I saw my first Butterfly of the season in my backyard- it was a Mourning Cloak. It flew by me, and landed nearby. What a thrill ! It's ONLY MARCH !
In playing dead, they are also in perfect hiding. They look like dead leaves. Came upon some as they were awaking from overwintering. Pretty amazing!
You are my favorite UA-camr I love butterflies and animals
They are so interesting. They have the most unique eggs, the caterpillars are venomous, they play dead and their name is because they resemble a mourning cloak used for grieving. Their spiritual meaning is death and grief. Seems that death surrounds them, but they can go into a stasis that allows them to resurrect from extremely cold temperatures
Thank you for sharing this.
Awesome John
So cool!
I just found this channel and I'm so happy! Eager to learn more about these beautiful animals. The quality of these videos is amazing and i'll probably spend the rest of the week (and more) watching all your videos. Thank you for doing this.
I'm glad you found it! I hope you enjoy our videos.
I’ve heard of these butterflies, but didn’t know about this cool feature they had
😂😂 feature
This is awesome! I’ve been fascinated by insects for a long time and noticing the odd things they do. So glad I learned something new today!
I am glad you enjoyed it!
Great video! No, we don't think you're crazy - these mourning cloaks are pretty remarkable! How do you collect so many of them? We haven't seen one around here for a long time.
I didn't know they went that far North. That means they can survive well below -10. How cold do you all get there on an average year? Mourning Cloaks are one of the butterflies I raise, so I have good quantities on a regular bases.
Unless it's a different species, but we're pretty sure it's this one, although we can't remember seeing one in years. -10F is -23C and the last few years we've dipped down to -40C for longer periods.
@@fourseasonsnorth Wow, that's pretty cool (literally;-). It probably is the same specie. There are not many other butterflies that look similar in your area.
@@thebutterflyfarmer1509 way up northern Ontario here saw these butterflies
Winter here can reach to - 40 below
@@AdvocateforTruth That's amazing!
I found one on November 1st while deer hunting this year. Now I know it’s an amazing little butterfly! And cute!
Interesting! Just filmed one on my hand yesterday! 😊
I've very rarely seen those butterflies. I mostly just see the Carolina Grasshoppers that look similar to those when in flight (hence one of their nicknames being the "Butterfly Grasshopper").
My family found one between trees in Mirror, Alberta!!! It's absolutely beautiful! Thank you for informing me about all the great facts about this butterfly. 😀
So! we actually found one of these butterflies today as were bucking up a May Day tree in town! The butterfly kind of woke up, slowly moving it's wings, but didn't fly and didn't really walk (it looked really fat!). Hadn't seen one for so long and we couldn't just leave it there on the ground waiting to be squashed, so we folded its wings and put it in a paper bag and kept it cool (like what you showed us in your last video). The weather's been down to -13C already up here but today it was around 5C. Is there a good place you think we should put it for the winter so that it might survive?
That's awesome that you found one! They eat a lot before they go dormant, so it makes sense it was fat. I am sorry I just saw your comment, but if you still have it here is what I would do. Try to find a sheltered spot that has a lot of cracks or crevices for it to crawl in. A perfect spot would be a pile of wood (fire wood or cut lumber). Inside an open barn, or under snow would be the best bet.
Great, thank you! We had put it under the house where it stays a bit warmer (not heated though) and is protected from the elements. It's supposed to be a very cold winter. Would be kind of like a barn, only with a dirt floor. Hopefully a mouse doesn't eat it or something. Hope you all are doing well.
@@fourseasonsnorth That should be a good place! And your winters are always cold lol. It has almost hit 80 the last 3 days here. If you ever run into something like this again email me. I check that a lot more frequently. My email address is: jvh440@yahoo.com
Thank you.
That’s amazing. I just saw one… in February!!
Great video! Very fascinating to see and beautiful at the same time. Keep up the good work
Thank you!
M here from animalogic really great video
Thanks! I am glad you found your way over.
By touching them does it damage the scales?
You can if you don't hold them correctly. Check out this video to learn more: ua-cam.com/video/sRc3EF7saZ8/v-deo.html
When I was a kid I saw all these caterpillars on this one tree so I collected them in to large plastic containers. Then they made themselves in to cocoons, it was so cool. One cocoon fell and that butterfly had some blood on it but it still flew. It was awesome looking at them. But I was wondering, does it sting your skin if you tough one of these caterpillars? I remember touching a cocoon and feeling a sting.
Hi
I have mourning cloaks that show up on my patio every year (only one) normally in the Spring. Do they tend to stay in one area to breed?
Thank you for this video. I was hiking on the beach of Lake Superior in Pictured Rocks and saw several doing this. I assumed they were dead. I don’t understand why they did not flee me as I was approaching them. They had plenty of time. Why were they standing out in the open on a beach?
It’s an interesting defense but does scarying the butterflies in order to stimulate the response stress the big?
Playing dead seems to be driven more by Instinctual response than it does from stress or panic. They stayed pretty chill throughout the whole thing, and did not seem scared or even in a hurry to get away once they started waking up.
I found a butterfly today and he/she played dead after I picked it up and put it down. This butterfly can’t fly as it lost some of the scales on the tip of one wing. I’d like to fix it so it can fly again, do you have any idea on what materials I can use to either cut out a bit and mimic scales or a bit to glue on the wing so that the wing will work again?
Did you ever fix it? 🥺
@@stealthis I actually did!!!! In the end what happened was that the butterfly must have been tired, and the damage to the wing was small and didn’t cause any issues after all luckily. So I kept the butterfly in a plastic box with no lid all day and overnight, and I fed it with fresh fruit and honey water. In the morning it started stretching the wings and open and close them for a while and then it flew out of the box. So I quickly caught it again and brought it outside and it flew high and freely!!! I was very happy I was able to keep it safe til it was ready to go. It was a beautiful experience for me to be able to see it eating and drinking and sleeping. Amazing! Thank you for asking xxx
I found a damaged mourning cloak unable to fly a week ago in San Diego. I have been caring for it for a week with water fruit and flowers. He hasn’t moved in almost a day but he is alive. Is he trying to hibernate? Would love advice on how to care for him.
Might try to plant a Rosa pisocarpa in my yard just because it's a host plant for the Mourning Cloak Butterfly larvae... worth a try.
Imagine going into a forest full of those butterflies and then hitting a tree full of butterflies with a stick and then they just rain down playing dead
Hello, I hope you see this, I have noticed a similar activity in a type of butterfly in my area but I have a different theory. Do you have any knowledge about Gulf Fritillaries?
I got a morning cloak too, and I did it too and it actually did it
3:00 Lol he wakes up his buddy
-Uh how long was I out?
-15 minutes
-Cool, can't wait to see how much my bitcoin's worth now
I know that behaviour from Europe, as they play dead here too. Nice video
Thanks! I am glad you are enjoying our videos from Europe!!
Found an injured one while walking my dog in Santa Ana 🍊 California. I picked it up by its wings and it never played dead I placed it on a flower and next morning the wings were wide opened and it was completely still now I’m here to see if it is playing and I’m very sad to see when playing they don’t spread their wings 🥺
That's incredible. But the fuck do you keep the butterflies in your hand that easily? I barely touched 3 butterflies in my entire life
Hi the butterfly farmer I want to ask you that I don't have one of those butterflies but I do have my own butterfly and it's always lying down.
It looks like a european Camberwell Beauty! Are they the same?
It is indeed, good catch! The scientific name is Nymphalis antiopa, and lives in both North America and Europe. You can substitute Scandinavia for Canada in the temperature comparison;-)
Is it the norm to find red droplet marks coming from the chrysalis??
Hello john this is rui from portugal, i collect butterflies and im struggling to get antiopa, i tried to find catterpilars on birtches wallows without success, can you please you send one or even a dead one? Thanks
I have two mating mourning cloaks, hoping to get some eggs.
Sereosly
Cat and dog who play dead: are you kidding me butterfly play dead too
I would not encourage people picking up butterflies. What is awesome is that this species overwinters in fallen leaves. The problem is that people tend to rake up all of the leaves on their yards in the fall not realizing that critters such as the mourning cloak need the leaves to overwinter in. We push our leaves off the grass and onto the beds.
I really hope these moths aren't considered an invasive species at the rate they just fly off from this guy. Hopefully they don't decimate the local trees and plantlife.
I fially found someone who is equally passionate about butterflies just like me.
The idea leuconoe (paper kites) plays dead to
The greatest phallacy of the animal kingdom is that opossums "play dead." They actually faint from fear, a physiological reaction, not maladaptive behavior. So might be the case with Mourning Cloak Butterfly. Let's put it this way-- if something 100 times your size reached for you, you'd probably faint, too.
fallacy? lol
Fallacy, erroneous belief, etc.@@Anna-md4dv
He’s a freak The butterfly I have two mourning cloak pupa that are going to hatch in a few days and I’m going to get them to play dead
How do you know it’s a male?
You didn't say what they liked to eat
Sorry! The Mourning Cloak is a member of the brushfoot family, so prefer fermented fruit over flowers (although will eat both). The favorite host plants for the cats are Willow and Elm.
They will also eat tree sap
@@mabsolgirl1776 That is a good point. Especially in the early spring before other food sources become available.