Monarch Butterfly Tagging - Citizen Science Opportunity
Fontana Park, Buchanan County
Saturday, September 4, 2021
PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL NOT BE AT FONTANA PARK. Tagging location will be determined by the location of flowers prefered by monarchs - registered participants will be emailed the tagging location on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3.
In the past 20 years
Buchanan County participants have tagged over 12,000 monarchs on their way to their wintering
grounds in Mexico. Of those, at least 235 have been recovered in Mexico. Join
us during the fall migration to catch, tag and
release these tiny travelers. Nets and tags will be provided.
Monarch butterflies begin
their migration south from Canada in late August. In September and early
October they travel south and west across the eastern US. Their journey
ends in the mountains of central Mexico - a distance of over 2500 miles for
some. They have never been to these wintering roosts before, but somehow
manage to find the same spots used for decades.
It wasn't until the
1970's that scientists knew where migrating monarchs went, and since that time
much has been learned.
But many more questions remain.
How do they get to roost
spots last visited by butterflies three generations removed? What
route(s) do they take to get there? How do weather patterns effect their
travels? Do males and females travel at different times? These are
just a few of the unanswered questions being studied by Monarch Watch’s tagging
program.
The best part of these
mysteries is that you can help with finding the answers.
Monarch Watch is
a collaborative network of students, teachers, volunteers and researchers
investigating the monarch butterfly migration and biology. Initiated in
1992 as a research project at the University of Kansas, Monarch watch now
includes studies on monarch culturing, life history studies, flight direction
analysis, sun compass studies, as well as tagging of migrating butterflies.
