When a woman brought a stranded monarch butterfly with a broken wing to the Sweetbriar Nature Center in New York, wildlife rehabilitation director Janine Bendicksen had to think fast and try something nobody had ever attempted before. She found a dead monarch in her vivarium that could serve as a donor and carefully transplanted its wing onto the injured butterfly using contact cement, cornstarch, and a tiny piece of wire to hold the delicate creature down. The procedure was so intricate that Bendicksen worried the butterfly could fall apart if she pressed too hard, but luckily butterfly wings have no nerve endings or blood vessels in the upper sections. She recorded the groundbreaking surgery on the center’s social media page, where it went viral with over a million views of people watching this tiny insect receive the most delicate helping hands.
The response was immediate and global, with Bendicksen’s phone ringing off the hook from entomologists in Minnesota, Costa Rica, and California who had never seen anything like it. To her knowledge, this was the first time anyone had ever tried to transplant a butterfly wing onto another butterfly, turning what could have been a certain death into a second chance at completing the famous migration from Mexico to Canada. Bendicksen told reporters that this butterfly would have died if they didn’t try, and that we need hope in this world today. The success proved that sometimes the smallest acts of care can inspire millions and show that every life matters, no matter how tiny.
