Date: 05/08/2017

Number: 2

2 male Monarchs were in the garden almost all day yesterday. Neither would give up the territory and would constantly go at each other over and over again. I noticed a behavior that I am curious about if anyone knows: whenever the dominant male would chase off the other one, he would come back to the garden and do what I call a "victory dance". He only did this after he chased off the other male. He would fly quickly upwards into the air doing a cork-screw (twirling) motion in 2-4 rapid successions. He would repeat this a couple of times before settling back down to fly normally around the garden again. When the other male came back, he would chase it off and then come back and do the "victory dance" again. This repeated 15 times over the day, and only after he would chase off the other male. The acrobatics were amazing to watch.

Houston, TX

Latitude: 30 Longitude: -95.6

Observed by: Jennifer
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.