Monarch Tagging Event: Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House

Information provided by Lisa Bakerink

 2011 Monarch Tagging Flier (207.74 kB)

 Monarch Watch Premigration Newsletter July 2011 (558.89 kB)

Below is basic information about what is planned for the Monarch Tagging event.  You will find a great deal of interesting information if you visit monarchwatch.org for a greater explanation about the program by Kansas University.  I have 200 tags ready to go; let's hope we use them all!    

2011 Monarch Tagging Event
Saturday, October 1, 2011 2:00-4:00 pm, public welcome
Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House
Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park
2400 S. Scenic, Springfield, MO 65807

This will be a hands-on event where participants will be instructed to place a stickered tag on a migrating monarch's hind wing in conjunction with a research program sponsored by the University of Kansas.  Since 1992, the Monarch Watch program at KU has empowered hundreds of people to become citizen scientists and participate in the overall understanding of the dynamics of the monarch population.  There are four generations of monarch butterflies each year and they can be found in all three countries in North America.  It is the fourth generation that migrates to Mexico with many of these starting at latitude 49 in Canada.  If a monarch begins migration at this point, it will travel about 3000 miles to its overwintering site in Mexico.  Peak migration (the range of time when most Monarchs are traveling southward through a certain area) for the Sprigfield area at latitude 37 is September 27.  Many monarchs will be seen in the area about a week before and after this date.  The overwintering site is about 1500 miles from Springfield.

The process of tagging will include:

• placing the tag 
• recording the unique tag number 
• recording the date 
• recording the sex of the butterfly 
• recording whether the butterfly was raised or captured in the wild 
• recording the location where it was tagged 

After the butterfly is released, each "tagger" will be sent home with the data needed to check on the status of the butterfly he or she has tagged.  Most tags will never show any activity beyond the actual tagging.  But some are recovered on their migration route.  If the person who recovers the butterfly sends it or the tag information to the Monarch Watch program, the information will be recorded and this data can be accessed on their website.  For example one butterfly I tagged was recovered in El Rosario, Mexico and had traveled 1563 miles.

Thank you all for your help in promoting this event to your friends and neighbors. Lisa