Don Davis holding tagged Monarch
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of talking with Don Davis who does a Monarch butterfly tagging demonstration each Labour Day Weekend at Presqu’ile Provincial Park. With a lot of hard work, he was able to find enough of these insects in order to show the public how the tagging is done. Don told me that a record low overwintering population is once again being forecast for 2013 – 2014. This August 2013 video of a speech given by Monarch expert Dr. Chip Taylor provides an excellent overview of the challenges facing Monarchs – the main ones being loss of habitat in the all-important “corn belt”of the American Midwest (as a result of Round-up Ready corn and soybeans) and the increased impacts of climate change. That being said, Dr. Taylor is still quite confident that the Monarchs will be able to hang on and should continue to turn up in our region in years to come. Keep planting Common Milkweed in your garden!
tagged Monarch ready to be released
Enlarged model of a Monarch tag
