Staff at a butterfly conservatory in Ontario spent the weekend tagging monarch butterflies and releasing them into the wild so that they can attempt their long migration across North America.
The Cambridge Butterfly Observatory, in Cambridge, Ont., is contributing to a decades-old research project called Monarch Watch that tracks how likely the brilliant orange and black insects are to make it all the way to their wintering grounds in Mexico.
Monarchs are not endangered or threatened in Ontario but researchers are concerned that a loss of habitat and climate change may be harming the species.
Jennifer Tremeer, education coordinator with the butterfly conservatory, explains that staff placed small stickers on each of butterfly’s wing, which others in Mexico will use to keep track of the migration.
These particular butterflies won’t be back next year. Adult monarchs born in late summer live for only several months and most of their offspring live for just a few weeks, according to the U.S. National Wildlife Foundation.
“It’s going to be the great-great grandchildren of (the butterflies we released this afternoon) that return next summer,” according to Tremeer.
With a report from CTV Kitchener
