On the hunt for synchronous fireflies in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Karen Chávez
The Citizen-Times
ELKMONT, Tenn. – Black bears? Elk? Bats?
Strangely, none of the nearly thousand people sitting quietly in the pitch-black night, deep in the thick woods of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was worried about these kinds of wildlife.
They were fixated on a glowing bug the size of a rice grain — the elusive synchronous firefly.
The tiny insect, with its bioluminescent magic powers, seems to have a magnetism for humans that outweighs any black bear fears, luring people this month from around the world to sit in a cold, dark, mosquito-buzzing forest.
On Thursday, the opening night of the weeklong, nature-made synchronous firefly show, people waited for hours in line to hop a trolley from Sugarlands Visitor Center to at Elkmont Campground on the Tennessee side of the park, which has one of the richest populations of synchronous fireflies.
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They then staked out prime viewing spots along a 1-mile stretch of the Little River Trail with lawn chairs and blankets, buckets of caramel corn, raspberries, cheese and crackers, and the heady anticipation akin to Christmas morning.
Sloane Mouser, 8, and her sister, Tara, 5 ½, could barely stand the wait. They came from Louisville, Kentucky, with mom Tara Mouser and grandparents Sherri and John Morgan.
Why? "To see the fireflies!" Sloan said. "Mommy voted and she got picked."
She was referring to the coveted parking pass drawn by a lottery.
Since 2006, when word started to spread internationally that the tranquil Elkmont Campground was the hottest spot to view Photinus carolinus, aka synchronous fireflies, the park began limiting entry, said Smokies spokeswoman Dana Soehn, since the crush of people were negatively disturbing the fireflies.
The insects glow during the small mating period, usually two weeks in early June.
Last year, the park started a lottery system. This year, 22,000 people applied, and only 1,800 parking passes were awarded, with a maximum of six people per car.
Those lucky enough to snag a campsite at Elkmont were able to walk into the viewing area, a dirt path lined on one side by the scenic Little River, and the other by a dense montane alluvial forest of deep leaf litter and closed in canopy of mature oaks, hickories, hemlock and tulip poplar – the type of habitat synchronous fireflies love.
Bugs draw visitors from Alaska, California, Philippines
Droves of firefly fanatics began arriving by 7 p.m., scouting their spots along the trail. Rangers greeted everyone at the entrance with red cellophane to cover their cellphones and flashlights to cut down on light pollution.
For so many people in the forest, sitting nearly shoulder-to-shoulder, the woods still felt quiet. Like sitting in church, waiting for something profound. Most people, even children, spoke softly, some whispering, letting the swift-flowing river fill the sound spaces.
Groups were multigenerational, from infants to teens to parents and grandparents, who came from 41 states, plus Puerto Rico, Canada and the Philippines.
In a crowded trail corridor, it's easy to see why the Great Smokies – with a half-million acres straddling the North Carolina-Tennessee border — is the most visited national park in the country.
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Last year it saw a record-tying 11.3 million, many coming for the overflowing abundance of natural phenomenon, such as the total solar eclipse last August, the roving elk herd, stunning mountaintop scenery, gushing waterfalls, and the endless recreation opportunities, such as backcountry hiking, fishing and camping.
The firefly hunters (in theory only, since catching fireflies is illegal in the national park) they waited — some patiently — as the forest grew darker. About 9:30 p.m., Pengtao Li broke the silence, pointing and yelling, "They started!" as he set up his tripod to snag nature in motion.
The first darts of light were actually "evening fireflies," that are commonly found in backyards. Another species, the blue ghost fireflies, roused a lot of finger pointing. This bioluminescent beetle glows a blue hue for 20-40 seconds, but not in synchrony.
But every airborne flash was a thrill for Li, originally from China, who now lives in the Central Valley in California and teaches computer information systems at California State University.
"I love animals, all sorts of animals," said Li, who had visited the Smokies before but had never seen the firefly show. "When I was young I wanted to be a scientist researching animals, but things didn't work out that way. I'm really excited to see the fireflies."
He and his girlfriend, Jenny Li, and friends Irene Chen and Jason Zhuang, of San Francisco, snagged the coveted lottery ticket and all flew in from the West Coast for three days, just to see the fireflies.
They were slightly outdone in distance traveled by Dawson and Tess Carroll, and their daughter, Olivia, 3, who came from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Tess's mother, Judy Bath, who traveled from North Pole, Alaska.
"We had never been to the Smokies. We were coming to the area to visit family and to go to Dollywood and thought this would be cool. My mom heard of the fireflies and we decided to enter the lottery and we got lucky," Tess Carroll said.
"I've never seen fireflies in my entire life," said Dawson. "We saw great pictures on the internet and thought it was the coolest thing."
"I thought this would be a bucket list thing. We don't have fireflies in Alaska," said Bath, who also came with her sister, Janie Courtney, from Covington, Kentucky.
And they'll have to hold the memories seared in their brains – flash photography is not allowed, and most people other than professional photographers or those experienced in long exposure photography gave up on trying to capture anything on a cell phone camera.
Better than the 4th of July
As the darkness soaked in, the silence popped with gasps. A completely black forest, all of a sudden lit up, crackling like fireworks but without the ear-piercing screeches of explosives.
As the night grew darker, it seemed more fireflies joined in the festivities. Total darkness for eight seconds. Then a spray of bright flashes for five seconds. Then dark for eight. Then flash, flash, flash. And on and on, in synchrony, for hours.
"I think it was incredible. It was like little diamonds lighting up the sky," said Madalyn Miller, a wildlife technician for the North Carolina side of the Smokies, who had never seen the synchronicity before.
The magical display was so mesmerizing that even sitting in the dark, and cold, some from 7 p.m. to midnight, it was hard to look away. Or to move, or turn your head for a second, or go to the bathroom, for fear of missing a single sparkling light.
Even Wayne Wolfe, a park volunteer who has been staffing the synchronous firefly show for seven years, can't get enough.
A retired Air Force veteran, Wolfe stands for several hours each night at the end of the trail, to keep people from straying off trail, and to answer an endless barrage of firefly questions.
"I love it. I really enjoy it. Everyone's seen lightning bugs, but they've never seen them synchronize. I've talked to people from Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, all over the U.S. It's just unbelievable the notoriety these fireflies have."
Not just your average firefly
Becky Nichols, the Smokies entomologist, has been studying fireflies, and all the park's bugs, for 20 years. She said there are 19 species of fireflies in the Smokies, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. Of those, 13 species flash.
What makes the synchronous fireflies so special?
"The synchronous firefly really does synchronize its flash pattern. It may look somewhat random at first, but the period of darkness in their flash behavior really does look synchronous. And when they get warmed up later in the evening, even the flash pattern lines up," she said.
Only the males do the flashing as they fly between 2-6 feet above the forest floor, trying to signal to the female that they are the right species for mating, Nichols said. The female firefly does flash, but it's a very faint flash from where she's crawling on the ground. The females don't fly.
It's believed the period of darkness in the male flash pattern is to allow them to see the female flashes.
All fireflies have two chemicals in their abdomen, luciferin and an enzyme that breaks that down called luciferase, Nichols said.
"When those chemicals get together and break down, light is produced. It's referred to as a cold light, since it's almost 100 percent light and no heat. (In contrast, the energy produced by an incandescent light bulb is about 10 percent light and 90 percent heat). It's an interesting way nature produces this bioluminescence. They do this over and over for two-three weeks."
Fireflies are not rare, but synchronous ones are. Their habitat is rapidly decreasing, which makes protected environments like the Smokies prime habitat for the blinking bugs.
Nichols said synchronous fireflies occur in pockets throughout the Southern Appalachians, as far north as the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania.
She said she knows of only one other in North America, Photuris frontalis, found in South Carolina and Mississippi. There are other synchronous fireflies found in Southeast Asia, and a species in Japan that flashes without flying.
Nichols said other than putting on a spectacular light show a couple of weeks each year, fireflies are an important part of the food chain. They provide food for spiders, birds and bats, and fireflies eat other insects.
"We're very aware of human impact on the habitat. That's part of the reason we're managing the situation now. There were a lot of people with headlights flashing in the woods, a lot of disturbance going on," Nichols said.
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"When we manage we can better control the impact to the resources. It might seem like a lot of effort – entering the lottery, riding a trolley, but it's all to help protect the visitor as well as protect the resources. We hope people will think about habitat for fireflies in their own backyard. They need total darkness and they need good larval habitat."
After several hours on the firefly watch, her eyes were sleepy, but 8-year-old Sloane Mouser was in heaven. She and her family have been to national parks around the country, but Sloane said she wants to come back next year to see the fireflies.
"It was so cool, the way they first lighted up, then poom, then poom, then poom!" she said. "It was like a humongous Christmas tree. My favorite part was when they lighted up together. I've always liked fireflies but I like them even more now."
Fun synchronous firefly facts
Synchronous fireflies, aka Photinus carolinus, are one of at least 19 species of fireflies that live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
They are the only species in America whose individuals can synchronize their flashing light patterns.
Fireflies, aka lightning bugs, are beetles. They take from one to two years to mature from larvae, but will live as adults for only about 21 days.
In the larval stage, fireflies feed on snails and smaller insects. Once they transform into their adult form, they do not eat.
Their light patterns are part of their mating display.
Peak flashing for synchronous fireflies in the park is normally within a two-week period in late May to mid-June.
The production of light by living organisms is called bioluminescence. Other bioluminescent organisms include certain species of fungus, fish, shrimp, jellyfish, plankton, glowworms, gnats and snails.
The reason for synchronous flashing is not entirely know. Competition between males may be one reason, all wanting to be the first to flash.
Going to see the synchronous fireflies? Slots are sold out. The lottery for next year will open in April.
Cover flashlights and cell phones with red or blue cellophane.
Use a flashlight only when walking to a viewing spot, then turn it off.
Point flashlights at the ground.
Do not catch the fireflies.
Stay on the trail at all times.
Pack out all of your garbage.