Imagine what would happen to the population of the United States if the area of the U.S. was shrinking each year by an area the size of the state of Illinois. This is the problem monarch butterflies are facing.
Every fall Monarch butterflies make a trip south to Mexico to hibernate from the cold winter months in the north. The population of these butterflies is taking a hard hit because of the deforestation in the southern U.S. and Mexico that is destroying milkweed plants. The butterflies use the milkweed plants not only as a source of food, but also as a place to lay their eggs.
A program at the University of Kansas is hoping to change this outlook for the butterflies. The program, Monarch Watch, is lead by Dr. Orley “Chip” Taylor, a professor of entomology at the University. Dr. Taylor is very concerned about the alarming rate at which the habitat of the butterflies is decreasing.
“In the United States we are losing 9.4 square miles a day due to development. It’s going to have consequences. This loss amounts to 2.2 million acres a year in area, which is equivalent to the size of Illinois, the fourth largest state,” Taylor said.
In 2005, the program created Monarch Waystations to combat this habitat loss. The waystations give the monarchs the necessary means to produce offspring and continue their migration. Although the monarch butterfly itself is not in danger of becoming extinct, the phenomenon of its migration is in danger. Because of deforestation, many monarch butterflies are losing their habitats.
“The Waystations are encouraging people to be aware of the deforestation and plant gardens for the butterflies,” said Ann Ryan, Monarch Watch program assistant.
Since 2005, more than 2,000 waystations have been created.
The program also reaches out to science teachers who are able to use the Monarch Watch program in their classrooms. This part of the program consists of tagging the butterflies to monitor their migration to Mexico in the fall and then back home again in the spring. Per year Monarch Watch sends out about a quarter of a million tags. Although not all of them are used. The number of tags the program sends out has been increasing over the years.
Randy Warner, a former science teacher at Olathe Northwest High School, used Monarch Watch as part of his curriculum to teach students about the butterfly and also have them participate in an actual research project where they contributed data to a large-scale database. Warner said he thought the project was a good motivator for his students, as the tagging of the butterflies allowed the students to get hands-on experience and learn about the scientific research process.
The research collected from the tagged butterflies has a benefit for ecologists as well. As Monarch Watch continues to accumulate years and years of data on the migration and population changes, the ecologists are able to correlate population fluctuations to ecological events such as climate change, habitat change and other environmental factors. This, in return, helps ecologists understand how these environmental changes affect general and specific populations over a long period of time.The main goals of the program include conserving the habitat by having the public create waystations; implementing education in the classroom; and conducting research using the data retrieved from the tagging process.
Avid nature lover Jessica Melhuse, a Chicago junior, said she thought Monarch Watch was certainly doing its part to help the butterflies. “I definitely like the fact that they are trying to reach out to the community to get help for the butterflies. I, myself would love to create a waystation so that future generations would be able to make the migration journey.” A monarch butterfly has an average life span of about six to seven months. In this relatively short time the butterfly travels a distance of approximately 500 miles. “The monarch is certainly an interesting species, Taylor said. “That’s why we are doing our best every day to help keep their habitat alive.”
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