Monarch Butterfly Migration Tracked By Doppler Radar

This video is pretty incredible a s it show the migration patterns of the monarch butterflies. Tracking was done solely via individual tagging of the butterflies.

Now the use of the doppler radar gives us another incredible view of the migration process. The different grouping of butterflies in different parts of the country by the millions stood out to me right away.

These groups of millions of monarch butterflies appear all to migrate at the same time from different areas of Canada and northern United States.

They are all able to navigate to their destination of Mexico without ever having been their before. On top of that, it takes several generations of monarch to complete their 3000 mile journey their lifespans are not long enough to complete the whole journey.

They must breed along the way and the next generation picks up the journey where the previous one left off, and this is done without ever visiting their final destination of Mexico.

Once the butterflies reach Mexico they hibernate during the winter months and in the spring they start the journey back to where the first generation started from.

Monarchs

Millions of the butterflies move annually from the as far north as Canada right to Mexico.

Trip can be as long as 3,000 miles, that takes up to 4 generations to complete.

Recent surveys at the wintering grounds of monarchs in Mexico showed the lowest colony size ever recorded.

The decline in monarch numbers has been blamed primarily on the loss of milkweed, the indigenous plants on which monarch caterpillars feed.

A research study showed more than half of the American participants were not aware of the decline in monarch populations, while 39 percent recognized with the problem.

The good thing is seventy percent of those examined believed saving monarchs was essential, while 3 percent claimed it was trivial.