Bet you think this won't end well...
Hah! Wasn't what I expected, either. The only slight of hand in this video is that you can't see the glass aquarium that held up the leaf tip--temporarily, anyway; it did fall a minute or two later, taking the caterpillar with it. Poor wee beastie appeared a bit shaken after it had booked across the bottom of the tank, so I returned it to another milkweed leaf.
Be sure to check out Cape May Bird Observatory's Monarch Monitoring Project! (See also the project's official website and their monarch blog.) They are maintaining monarch caterpillar tanks again this year at CMBO's Northwood Center to allow for easy, up-close viewing of caterpillars, chrysalises and emerging butterflies. Team members will also be giving monarch butterfly tagging demos at Cape May Point State Park starting in mid-September.
