Kenneth C. Brugger (16 June 1918 – 25 November 1998) was an American naturalist and self-taught textile engineer. He is noted for discovering, with his wife

Catalina Trail Catalina Trail (née Aguado, previously known as Cathy Brugger) is a Mexican-born naturalist and social worker. She is noted for discovering, with her then-husband Kenneth C. Brugger, the location of the overwintering sites of the monarch butter ...

, the location of the overwintering sites of the

monarch butterfly The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. I ...

, ''Danaus plexippus''.

Life and career

Brugger was born 16 June 1918 in

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Wisconsin, fourth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 99,986 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. S ...

. He never attended college but had strong mechanical aptitude and mathematical skills. He worked as a mechanic in his father's garage until

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when he worked in the cryptology section of the U. S. Signal Corps. After the war he went to work for

Jockey International Jockey International, Inc. is an American manufacturer and retailer of underwear, sleepwear, and sportswear for men, women, and children. The company is based in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Jockey invented the first men's Y-Front brief in 1934 and it ...

and rose to the position of chief engineer for Jockey's worldwide knitting operations. He designed innovative knitting machines, including a compactor that minimized shrinkage in knitted underwear. Following a divorce in 1965 he moved to Mexico to work as a textile consultant.

Monarch research

In 1972 Brugger was working in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. An amateur naturalist, he responded to a notice in a local newspaper written by Fred and Norah Urquhart, Canadian zoologists who were studying the migration patterns of monarch butterflies. The Urquharts had tracked the migration route as far as Texas, where it disappeared, and they thought it might continue into Mexico, so they were seeking volunteers to look for the butterflies. In 1973, after seeing the ad, Brugger convinced Catalina Aguado to search for the butterflies with him. They searched for several years, first as volunteers, then as paid assistants to the Urquharts. In 1974 he married Catalina Aguado, a fellow butterfly lover. On 2 January 1975, they finally found a mountaintop forest containing millions of resting monarch butterflies. Their discovery was reported as the cover story in

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

magazine in August 1976. Eventually a dozen such sites were located and were protected by the Mexican government as ecological reserves. The area is now a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

known as the

Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve () is a World Heritage Site containing most of the overwintering sites of the eastern population of the monarch butterfly. The reserve is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests ecoregi ...

. The sites are popular with ecotourists who admire the beauty of the massed butterflies. Ironically, Brugger could not appreciate that beauty; he was totally colorblind. Brugger and Catalina Aguado (who later remarried and became known as Catalina Trail) separated in 1991 and eventually divorced; they had one son.

Recognition

Brugger's search and discovery is dramatized in the

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

film ''

Flight of the Butterflies ''Flight of the Butterflies'' is a 2012 Cinema of Canada, Canadian documentary film directed and co-written by Mike Slee for 3D film, 3D IMAX, starring Megan Follows, Gordon Pinsent, and Shaun Benson. The film covers Fred Urquhart, Dr. Fred Urquha ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brugger, Kenneth C. 1918 births 1998 deaths Textile engineers People from Kenosha, Wisconsin People from Austin, Texas 20th-century American naturalists United States Army personnel of World War II