Tagged Monarchs Found

Tagged monarch butterflies are beginning to show up in known overwintering clusters in Christchurch. Three tagged butterflies have been observed so far in the cluster in Redwood Park, sheltering from the worst of the stormy weather. They will come out on sunny days to find nectar before returning to the safety of the swarm.

“We are concerned at the apparent decline in monarch butterflies in NZ,” said Jacqui Knight, founding trustee of the Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust. “This season we reintroduced our tagging project. We enlisted the help of over 250 ‘citizen scientists’ up and down the country, including many schools, and have distributed 10,000 specially made tags.”

In the spring the surviving monarchs mate and return to gardens or anywhere where there are swan plants growing. The females lay eggs, beginning the new generation of monarch butterflies.

In 2003 two entomologists documented over 20 overwintering sites in the Canterbury area but there are few records of sites elsewhere in NZ.

“I’m not sure if people know about the monarchs overwintering, or they just haven’t shared that information.”

In North America, there are huge concerns for the decline in monarchs where they are native. The monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains migrate hundreds of kilometres every autumn to overwintering sites in Mexico. For almost 45 years scientists were puzzled as to where they went and in 1975 they discovered the first overwintering site.

David James, Associate Professor at the Department of Entomology at Washington State University is overseeing the NZ project. David has 13 years’ experience with a similar project in North America.

“About 75% of all recoveries are made at overwintering sites,” he said. “We need more people to particularly look for tagged butterflies.”

Sightings can be reported to www.mb.org.nz and a special project has been set up on iNaturalist to monitor overwintering sites:

https://inaturalist.nz/projects/nz-monarch-butterfly-overwintering
https://www.nzbutterflies.org.nz/project/tagging/

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