Episode 5

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 learns about the concept of an endling - the very last of a species before it becomes extinct - and she wonders if she’s looking at the endlings of the rare butterflies she’s journeyed around Denmark to find. She spots the extraordinarily beautiful silver washed fritillary, but she still has many more to find before the year is over. She mulls on the marvels she has seen, all she has learnt, and how much she cares about butterflies now and wonders if it will matter in the end, if she doesn’t complete her task.

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