Monarch Migration, 2
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
If you’re already in the habit of admiring migrating monarchs, then consider taking part in a citizen science project called Texas Monarch Watch.
People can get involved with that by reporting their sightings. And they can go to the Texas Parks and Wildlife department website. Go under Texas Nature Trackers—and there’s a whole page with lots of information about it.
Michael Warriner, an invertebrate biologist at Parks and Wildlife, says there’s also a national Monarch Watch program that’s more hands on.
They want people to basically tag monarchs. You can order a tagging kit. And as you see monarchs, you can capture them with a butterfly net, and take one of these little tags and place it on the wing—there’s instructions and everything. What they’re trying to do is track where the monarchs were tagged and then when they come back, to kind of get an idea of how long the migration was and how long these things live.
Monarchwatch.org has more information and tagging kits. Warriner advises when catching monarchs or any butterfly to grasp only the outer edge of the front wing.
Because the wings are covered in scales, and if they lose those scales it would maybe become harder to fly and so on.
They need those scales to make that long migration. Visit passporttotexas.org for links to more monarch information, as well as tips on what to plant in your garden to attract these winged travelers.
That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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