A few days ago, one of our readers here at Bear River Blogger reached out to me about helping get the word out about a monarch butterfly research project conducted in Blackfoot, Idaho through Washington State University in hopes of getting help from the public, especially those of us who love and want to help save the ailing monarch butterfly migration.
The research study, overseen and conducted by Dr. David James, a professor of entomology at WSU, will be raising, tagging, and releasing approximately 6000 wild monarch butterflies over the next few years for this particular study in an effort of finding out where monarch butterflies from the research area migrate to and over-winter.
And like many North American monarch butterfly populations, it is currently unknown if monarch butterflies from the Blackfoot, Idaho region migrate to Mexico or to the California coast for the winter so tagging and releasing efforts are being taken to find out where monarch butterflies from this area migrate to each fall.
During this first year of the study, it is hoped 1,000 or more monarch butterflies can be raised, tagged, and released in Blackfoot, Idaho.
Because monarch butterflies are extremely hard to track, with the only feasible method being placing a tiny lightweight sticker on the underwing portion of the butterfly in hopes of a future observation along the migration route, numerous butterflies have to be tagged and released for just a few observations to be received later on.
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In fact, Dr. James receives about 5 spotting responses for every 1,000 monarch butterflies tagged and released during his research studies so it’s a numbers game to get even just a few very valuable kernels of information about monarch migration routes and over-wintering areas.
This is where you and I, the public, can and are asked to help.
None of these monarch butterfly studies can be successful without citizens like you and me reporting sighting data of tagged monarchs as they migrate their way south for the winter, including the date and location of the sighting as well as the tag number observed,.
Out here in the western United States and depending on latitude, September is the peak time for monarch butterflies to migrate southward and when we all should be looking for and reporting any and all tagged monarch butterflies observed in our travels.
There are a few different organizations tagging monarch butterflies each fall all over the United States and each tag will have an email to their particular organization as well as a unique identifying number for each and every monarch butterfly tagged and released.
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Look for the tiny sticker on the underside of the monarch butterfly’s wing as they nectar or possibly perched for a bit of rest.
If you indeed have a tagged monarch butterfly in front of you, there will be a tag on one of the underwings.
The best way to record a tagged monarch butterfly is with a picture or binoculars, leaving the butterfly undisturbed if at all possible so it can continue its migration undisturbed.
For the Washington State University monarch butterfly study, look for yellow stickers placed on the underside of one of the wings and email the observation to WSU with the date, location, and tag number.
Anyone in the Blackfoot, Idaho area during September 2-10 can view the tagging and releasing at the East Idaho State Fair where several scheduled releases will happen throughout each afternoon of the fair.
Fall migration for monarch butterflies is underway and here in Utah I have heard of a couple locally tagged monarchs already being spotted on their journey.
So keep a look out for monarch butterflies with a wing tag and report the sighting to whatever info is on that particular tag, making it important to be able to clearly read the tag as there are several different entities tagging migrating monarch butterflies each fall for their own research studies.
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