Episode 1

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 episode 1, after procrastinating for some time, Lea works out a method and system for locating and visiting the sites where she thinks the species of butterfly she is looking, proliferate around Denmark.

She starts to learn about the habits and behaviours of butterflies, including the migratory patterns of some butterflies and the miraculous way that offspring find their way back to Denmark having been conceived as far away as the Sahara. She also learns about the habitat of other butterflies who overwinter in Denmark.

After learning and waiting, she finally finds her first butterfly species-but has she the knowledge and the tenacity to find the remaining 63?

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