Flight of the Monarchs

Swarms of orange wings painted with black stripes and white dots flutter across North America each year. Monarchs travel 3,000 miles en route to a final resting place for the winter.

The butterfly’s habitat is in danger and the topic has gathered worldwide attention from scientists.

KU professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Chip Taylor studies the butterflies and their annual migration that occurs across the continent. As the leader of Monarch Watch, a KU program dedicated to research, conservation and education about the butterfly, Taylor observes the migration from the northern United States to Mexico, where the butterfly population is tracked at the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. The reserve is a 217-square-mile area in central Mexico that is the winter home for the millions of monarchs migrating across the continent, but it is also a target for deforestation, which threatens their survival.

The rising cost of lumber has prompted loggers to find other sources of wood, and the area where the reserve is located is hard to police because it is so remote. The habitat makes it a perfect opportunity for illegal logging. In some situations, loggers have become forceful and violent.

“They carry guns. They overpower the local residents. They sneak in there at night, sometimes with 100 trucks, and clear out two or three hectares. This prospect is very ominous and is a serious threat to the overwintering population,” Taylor said.

Monarch habitat destruction happens in the U.S. also. Urban sprawl consumes 9.4 square miles of habitat per day, and the use of Roundup Ready soybean and corn also has reduced the monarch habitat by at least 100 million acres since 1996.

Taylor has called for aid to save the monarch population with better interdiction to halt illegal logging, increased planting of trees and employment of area residents as forest managers. He’s also encouraged U.S. gardeners to plant milkweed to help stint the butterfly’s decline.

“The monarch migration is truly a wonder,” Taylor said. “Here, you have a fragile insect weighing a half a gram, with a tiny brain, that comes out of Mexico in the spring, migrates up to the breeding areas where it has several generations, then migrates back again to an area that the year’s last generation has never been to. There are lessons for life in this butterfly and we need to protect it.”

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