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Monarch Butterfly Migration Update: October 25, 2001
Today's Report Includes:
- Highlights Along the Migration Trail
- Butterflies Flurries in Florida Last Week
- Tagging Recoveries Raise Questions: Challenge Question #14
- Migration Pathway Through Mexico: Can You Follow the Trail?
- Counting Monarchs With Colegio Ingles: Discussion of CQ#12
- Final Fall Migration Update Coming Next Week
Highlights Along the Migration Trail
- Link to This Week's Migration Data (for classroom mapping).
Children from the monarch over-wintering area in Mexico now say there are simply too
many monarchs to count! At Esceula de Rendencion del Campesino, the students share their sightings before the teacher
even has time to ask. Students at Escuela Issac Arriaga discussed what they should do so as not to harm the monarchs,
?Preserve the forest, observe them and study them but don?t mistreat them,? said some. Up the mountains at Escuela
La Salud, students are happy to see the monarchs because they provide the communities with temporary jobs. Escula
Benito Juarez is perched on a hilltop directly beneath the Sierra Chincua sanctuary. They say they are enjoying
themselves as they watch the butterflies arriving.
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Escuela Issac Arriaga in the center of Angangueo |
Students at Escuela La Salud saying hello to their northern friends |
Benito Juarez student and father walking home with her Symbolic Monach |
Meanwhile, more monarchs are coming as observers along the migration trail continue to report:
10/21/01 Santiago de Queretaro, Queretaro
"I was playing with my kids in the University grounds a few minutes ago which sits on a small hill, and my girl Jennifer said, 'Hey, Daddy the monarchs have returned.' Sure enough, there they were..."
10/19/01 San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi
"Desde el 19 de octubre las mariposas se observan en la ciudad de San Luis Potosi, yo las veo en los jardines de la Universidad, volando muy bajo. Se pueden contar 3-4 por minuto."
This week?s report from Allen Academy in Bryan, Texas is a reminder that thousands and thousands of monarchs haven?t
even crossed the border into Mexico yet, and that the peak migration can vary from place to place.
10/23/01 Bryan, Texas
?Our 2nd grade class feels that we possibly experiencing the peak week for Monarch migration in our area. We have seen 88 Monarchs this past week. We are seeing them while traveling in our cars, at school, and near our homes. Many dead Monarchs have been identified by the children. We are checking our butterfly garden daily.?
Butterflies Flurries in Florida Last Week
Peak migration hit Florida last week like a storm. ?Saturday at St. Marks was a stupendously super day!? exclaimed Mr. Richard RuBino who coordinates the annual monarch migration census at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. They counted 1,197 monarchs on their Saturday morning census. This single day?s count was almost equal to last YEAR'S total count of 1,463! ?The cold front that sweep through the area a couple of days earlier certainly pulled a pack of monarchs along with it,? said RuBino.
Mr. Richard RuBino also coordinates monarch tagging at the refuge, and his results raise some fascinating questions about migration through Florida. Of the almost 12,000 butterflies they've tagged over a nine year period, only one has been found in Mexico. Following is a partial list of where monarchs tagged at St. Marks have been recaptured:
| Town | State |
Lat (N) |
Long (W) |
| El Rosario | Michoacan |
19.00 |
-100.00 |
| Deland | Florida |
29.04 |
-81.38 |
| Panacea | Florida |
30.02 |
-84.39 |
| Weeki Wachee | Florida |
28.30 |
-82.57 |
| Lakeland | Florida |
28.04 |
-81.93 |
| Corpus Christi | Texas |
27.80 |
-97.40 |
| Biloxi | Mississippi |
30.40 |
-88.89 |
Take out a map of Florida and find St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (30.15 N, -84.20 W). Now plot the tag recoveries provided by Mr. RuBino. With all the discussion about monarchs migrating to Mexico, are we making assumptions that we should reconsider?
Challenge Question #14
"What surprised you the most about the tag recoveries from St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida? If you were studying migration pathways, what hypotheses would you like to test??
(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions
below.)
Can You Follow the Monarchs' Trail?
Millions upon millions of butterflies are now traveling across Mexico toward the sanctuary region. Dr. Bill Calvert describes the migration pathway below. Print out his description and find each of the towns and geographic features Dr. Calvert mentions. Trace the pathway on your map and look for the turns which Dr. Calvert finds surprising.
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Tip: The National Geographic Atlas of the World shows most of the towns named below. |
From Dr. Calvert:
As the butterflies move through Texas, the center of the pathway could be considered to move down from Wichita
Falls, to Abilene, San Angelo, and then to Del Rio, Texas.
Once in Mexico, the butterflies join the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains in the states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon
and seem to turn their direction--to follow the mountain chain, south to southeast. The pathway extends from Ciudad
Acuna, to Monclava, then Santa Catarina (west of Monterrey and east of Saltillo, Santa Catarina is famous for monarchs).
The monarchs seem to follow the mountain crest/valleys especially in area between Monterrey and Linares. This is
a major monarch highway, through all the little towns like Galeana, Iturbide, etc. They continue moving to the
south-southeast, hugging the mountains to the west of Ciudad Victoria. Near Jaumave they pass through an amazing
portal into the inner montane valleys called the Novilla Canyon. When south of Cuidad de Maiz (corn) there's a
pass where monarchs go through at exceedingly high rates, probably thousands per minute.
Looking at the map, what happens next is just so delightfully confusing! They've been traveling slightly to the
east when following the Sierra Madre Oriental. But then they come to the region surrounding Jalpan that's called
the Sierra Gorda and they head south. I think this is what's most incredible--this change in direction in the mountains.
They don't seem to have any clear ranges to follow, yet they seem to make this turn. (The Sierra Gorda region is
highly dissected by rivers and valleys are not aligned in a north/south direction like the Sierra Madres.)
We just don't know where the monarchs are when they go through the Sierra Gorda. It's a thinly populated, mountainous
area and so not many people see them. You can see monarchs in Jalpan, then again at Queretaro and Tequisquiapan.
At last they start to hit the Transvolcanic Range--Amealco, Coroneo, then finally Contepec, which is the northernmost
over-wintering site (labeled Altamirano on the map).
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Mexico's Mountain Ranges |
Location of Mexican Sanctuaries |
Write a Travel Guide to Northern Mexico
If you were a butterfly traveling across northern Mexico right now, what do you suppose you?d be seeing? The ?Mexico Connect? Web site is one of many sites with pictures and articles written by travel writers who have traveled through this region. Explore and enjoy,then write your own travel guide!
- Mexico Connect Travel Guide
Counting Monarchs With Colegio Ingles
Discussion of CQ #12
Congratulations to Ms. Krause?s fourth grade students at Jefferson Elementary School in Waupun, Wisconsin who calculated the migration rate for the observations from Colegio Ingles in Monterrey, Neuvo Leon. They learned that the observer on Las Torres Carrefour, who saw 100 monarchs per minute, saw the greatest number. ?That would be 6000 per hour,? they realized!
Here are the other high numbers, for comparison:
- Las Torres Carrefour area 100 per minute. (6000/hour)
- Antiguo San Agustin, 40 per minute. (2400/hour)
- Cadereyta Nuevo Leon, 25 per minute. (1500/hour)
- By the Cerro de la Silla Mountain, 15 per minute. (900/hour)
- Villa Chipinque neighborhood about 15 per minute. (900/hour)
- A Ranch in Allende Nuevo Leon about 30 per five minutes. (360/hour)
- Los Cavazos ranch about 40 every ten minutes. (240/hour)
Final Fall Migration Update Coming Next Week
Now that the monarchs are arriving at the Mexican sanctuaries, we?ll complete this fall?s migration coverage next week. Please send your answers to the following challenge questions so we can cover them in next week?s update:
How to Respond to Today's Challenge Questions:
1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-monarch@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #12 (or #13).
3. In the body of the message, answer the question above.
The FINAL Monarch Migration Update Will Be Posted on November 1, 2001.
Copyright 2001 Journey North. All Rights Reserved.
Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form
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