At an animal rehabilitation center in Smithtown, New York, a team of experts performed a surgery straight out of a fantasy story: a wing transplant on a monarch butterfly. The operation, conducted at the Sweetbriar Nature Center, returned to freedom a butterfly found with a broken wing, unable to fly.
It was a citizen who brought her there, Dagmar Hoffdavis, who didn’t turn away when faced with a living being in difficulty. The intervention, led by the center’s director Janine Bendicksen, required hours of work and a very steady hand. The solution? Use the wing of a deceased butterfly, found on the floor of the center, perfectly intact and compatible with that of the little patient.
Unexpected surgical technique and materials
To rebuild the wing, Bendicksen and his team used tools as simple as they were ingenious: contact glue, corn starch and a metal wire to keep the butterfly in place during the delicate process. The peculiarity of the intervention lies in the very biology of the lepidopteran: the wings of butterflies are composed of chitin, a rigid protein also present in the exoskeletons of insects.
This feature made a pain-free transplant possible, as the wings contain no nerves or blood flow. After about five hours of painstaking work, the result was surprising. The butterfly, once free, took flight naturally, demonstrating that the operation had not only been successful, but had truly given it a second chance.
A small gesture that conquers the web
The video of the wing transplant was published on the center’s Instagram profile and quickly made the rounds on social media, gathering thousands of views and comments. Between messages of amazement and ironic jokes, many users defined the operation as a real “miracle in miniature”.
For Bendicksen, however, the real miracle is seeing how a simple act of empathy and scientific creativity can change the fate of such a fragile creature. And while the butterfly resumes its migratory journey, perhaps towards Mexico, the world witnesses a story that reminds us how even the smallest life deserves a second chance.
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