WYOMING — Wyomingites can help track Monarch butterflies as they fly through the state this summer and fall.
In 2015, the University of Wyoming’s Biodiversity Institute started a citizen scientist campaign called the Monarchs and Milkweeds program to better understand where, when and how monarchs travel through Wyoming.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), monarch butterflies migrate over 3,000 miles each year, flying from as far as Canada across the United States to congregate at a few forested overwintering sites in the mountains of central Mexico and coastal California. During the monarch’s migration from Canada to their wintering grounds, little is known about their stopover in Wyoming.
According to the University of Wyoming, milkweed plants provide critical habitat for monarch larvae and adults of many species. While there are 13 species of milkweed in Wyoming, monarchs and the habitat they require (prairies, ditches, gardens, etc.) that host milkweed are in decline. The University’s Biodiversity Institute is also collecting data to find where the species of milkweeds exist in Wyoming, and to harvest some of the seeds to plant in nearby gardens.
Biodiversity Institute Project Coordinator Mason Lee told Buckrail that the purchase of a few monarch tags will assist the monarch location project this year. The small, all-weather tags, which have a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing, do not interfere with flight or otherwise harm the butterflies when applied correctly, according to Lee.
“We will use these tags to tag any adult monarch that we find in eastern Wyoming,” Lee said. “Hopefully, some of these monarchs will be recaptured by other monarch researchers or community scientists so that we can get a little more information on the geographic distribution and migration routes of these monarchs that come through Wyoming.”
According to Monarch Watch, more than a quarter of a million tags have been distributed to thousands of volunteers across North America. These community scientists capture monarchs throughout the migration season, record the tag code, tag date, gender of the butterfly and geographic location then tag and release them. Tagging helps answer questions about the origins of monarchs that reach Mexico, the timing and pace of the migration, mortality during the migration and changes in geographic distribution. Tagging kit materials can be downloaded here.
Monarch enthusiasts can also submit research-grade observations without tagging, by providing the date, location and a verifiable photo or sound for monarch identification. Wyoming observations of monarchs or milkweeds are uploaded to the institute’s project and then become available for global research.
“Wyoming is not really on the main migration pathway of monarchs, but we still have over 100 observations of monarchs in different life stages that have been uploaded to the project,” Lee said.
The monarch’s decline over the past two decades has prompted the USFWS to join state agencies, tribes, other federal agencies and non-government groups to identify threats to the monarch and take steps to conserve monarchs throughout their range. Some of the butterfly’s threats include the conversion of grasslands to agriculture, urban development, widespread use of herbicides, drought, continued exposure to insecticides and effects of climate change.
In December 2020, the USFWS determined that listing the monarch under the Endangered Species Act is warranted but precluded at this time by higher priority listing actions. The agency will continue to review its status yearly.
The Monarchs and Milkweeds program supplies free guides about monarchs and milkweeds for those wanting to learn more about the different species.
