The Amazing Monarch: The Secret Wintering Grounds of an Endangered Butterfly

Author and photographer Windle Turley chronicles the lifecycle of the monarch butterfly. Replete with page after page of full-colour photographs, the book shows the monarchs rarely captured wintering grounds. The contrast of the orange and black pops off the page as the reader goes on a visual tour in the high mountains of Mexico. The multifaceted work also contains poems and quotations focusing on the beauty of these tiny animals that weigh only .02 of an ounce. This book tracks the monarchs migration and interesting life span. The handful of roosting sites, located at an altitude of about 10,000 feet and only a few acres in size, may each contain 20 to 30 million monarchs. Granted almost unprecedented access by Mexican wildlife officials, Turley photographed the insects in their natural habitats at their sanctuaries in Los Saucos and at the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary -- areas unknown to outsiders until 1975.

For the past 25 years, Windle Turley has traveled the world photographing wildlife, large and small. Orangutans in Borneo, gorillas in Africa, along with polar bears and butterflies, are only a few of the many subjects he has tracked. Exhibits of his works have been praised for their unique composition and character. When Turley is not taking pictures of wildlife he is a practicing trial attorney at Turley Law Firm in Dallas, Texas.