Episode 2

Lea Korsgaard searches for all of Denmark’s butterfly species in one year. She discovers secret places and learns about the rich natural and symbolic history of butterflies.

Butterflies are an intrinsic part of the ecosystem, pollinating plants and acting as food for larger creatures. Their existence is entwined with the plant life and landscapes they make home, but habitats are reducing and with this, butterfly populations are under threat.

Learning about the potential loss of habitat and butterflies, journalist Lea Korsgaard goes on a quest to see all of Denmark’s 64 butterfly species in a single year.

She is a butterfly novice, but over the course of the year, she learns about the extraordinary facts of butterfly metamorphosis, meets passionate experts who show her the secret places where butterflies still proliferate and finds out about the history of collectors for whom butterflies had become an obsession. She finally learns that she has become as hooked as the experts she has met.

In this episode, Lea pursues her search for all the butterfly species in Denmark, ticking off fuce at pace. She learns about the miraculous process of metamorphosis of butterflies, in which the caterpillar munches up its old home. She finds the aptly named green butterfly, the only green one in Denmark, but soon realizes that having seen only six butterflies in two months, the task ahead is more immense than she’d imagined. Can she possibly hope to see them all in a year?

Read by Nicola Walker
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Lisa Lipman
Sound design by Jon Calver
Executive produce:, Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4