Want to help scientists research monarch butterflies? Here’s how you can participate
See a monarch butterfly flying around in your neighborhood?
A team of university researchers and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation want you to take a photo of that butterfly and report it as part of the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge so they can better understand the species’ migration habits.
After submitting your photo to the challenge, you will be entered to win a variety of prizes every week that you participate.
The citizen-based project is put on by researchers from Washington State University; Tufts University; University of California, Santa Cruz and the nonprofit Xerces Society.
Monarch butterflies have seen a devastating drop in numbers in the past few years. In 2020, just 1,914 butterflies were counted in California, compared to about 30,000 the year before, Xerces Society said.
This sharp decline is due to a variety of factors, including climate change, habitat destruction and the widespread use of pesticides, according to Xerces Society.
The species was denied federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in December. And a judge in the Superior Court of Sacramento County ruled in November that state does not have the legal authority to protect insects under the California Endangered Species Act, meaning the monarchs cannot be protected under the act.
So, researchers are turning to the community to help find out more about the species and its migratory patterns.
“Our current focus is understanding the migratory part of the western monarch population,” said Cheryl Schultz, a Washington State University biology professor and lead researcher on the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge, in a news release about the challenge. “There are resident monarchs which live and breed year-round in parts of California. The migratory part of the population overwinters in the coastal groves and spreads across the western U.S. in the summer. These are the monarchs of greatest concern today.”
When monarchs leave the overwintering groves — such as the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove — in late January, scientists don’t know where they go until they’re back in central California to breed in May.
“We don’t know exactly where western monarchs are in spring, but we do know that this is a critical point in the life cycle,” said Elizabeth Crone, a Tufts University biology professor, in the news release. “Monarch populations are smallest at this time of year and individual butterflies may be at their weakest right after their long winter diapause.”
Here’s how to participate in the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge:
- If you see a monarch outside of overwintering groves, take a picture! (Don’t worry, it can be far away and blurry).
- Report it through the following options, and be sure to include the date and location:
- iNaturalist (the app is free)
- Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper at monarchmilkweedmapper.org
- Email it to MonarchMystery@wsu.edu
Once you complete those steps, you’ll be entered to win a variety of prizes every week that you report a monarch butterfly sighting.
The challenge began on Feb. 14 and runs through April 22.
“The Monarch Mystery Challenge is an opportunity to get even more people to participate in western monarch community science–and these animals need our help right now, more than ever,” Sarina Jepsen, a Xerces Society conservation biologist, said in a news release.
You can also stay up-to-date by following the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 11:13 AM.
