Myth: Monarchs and GMO Foods Are Unrelated

Why North America Is Losing in the Monarch Games Wanna talk Olympic pursuits? Every fall, monarch butterflies in eastern North America embark on an epic journey. Putting in 50-100 miles a day, they travel up to 3,000 miles from the U.S. and Canada to the fir forests of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, where they settle in … Read more

Myth: All Bees Sting

Buzz-kill: Afraid Bees Are Out to Sting You? It’s criminal—every day, in yards, picnic areas, and outdoor cafes across the country, scary bees stalk unsuspecting humans, slap-happy with sting power and thirsty for blood. Or…at least that’s how lots of people think of bees. Who among us has not frozen in cartoonish fear at the … Read more

On the Air: Insectophobia

How does a cricket taste? That’s what I was thinking recently while watching a mother bird feed its fat, hungry babies. As it happens, Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago has an insect chef serving crickets on the weekends this summer, so I had the chance to find out! Last Sunday, while visiting the zoo’s Xtreme Bugs … Read more

Myth: Bats Are Foe, Not Friend

Picture this: It’s a dark and stormy night (isn’t it always?), and the streetlights have all gone out. You hear a suspicious rustling just ahead of you. Skin prickling, hairs standing straight up on your neck, you cautiously step forward. Suddenly, you see a winged shadow flicker across the broken drifts of moonlight. Where’s Buffy … Read more

Trees: They’re What’s for Dinner

Information provided by CZS/Brookfield Zoo, an EcoMyths Alliance Partner. If you’re an animal at CZS/Brookfield Zoo, trees might be what you eat for dinner. More specifically, “browse” is the name for the trimmings taken from about 800,000 to one million trees—and that’s just a small percentage of the approximately 9,000 miles of trees ComEd prunes … Read more