Anderson Cooper on witnessing the monarch butterfly migration
The annual migration of monarch butterflies is one of science's great mysteries: millions of monarchs know the correct path even though they have never made the long journey themselves. As 60 Minutes found, the expedition to watch the migration can be its own challenge.
Updated on: July 19, 2026 / 7:01 PM EDT / CBS News
This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Anderson Cooper reports on the migration of the monarch butterflies, an annual spring spectacle during which millions of butterflies begin their trek north from Mexico, where they have spent the winter. The butterflies fly south from the U.S. and Canada each fall, and this transnational migration remains one of science's great mysteries: millions of monarchs know the correct path to migrate even though they have never made the long journey themselves.
For humans, the expedition to see the butterflies' migration can be its own challenge.
It took the 60 Minutes team three years of planning to produce this week's story, which was shot in 2025. The window during which butterflies leave their overwintering roosts in Mexico's pine and fir trees is short and at the mercy of the weather. This year, the temperature was uncooperative for days before the team began shooting.
But first, they had to get there. Last year, more than 60 million monarch butterflies roosted in a four-and-a-half-acre patch of forest on the side of a mountain, 11,000 feet up. Cooper and the 60 Minutes team first rode horses, then hiked, all while carrying camera gear.
"It's really a gamble," Cooper said. "You can get there, and if the weather's not cooperative, if the sun doesn't come out from the clouds, if it's too cold all day long, the monarchs aren't going to be flying around. And you really won't have much of a story if you don't see them flying."