The magnificent monarch butterfly
Since 1997, the Monarch Butterfly has been considered a species at risk in Canada.
This November, that status will be reassessed in light of increased threats to this charismatic creature.
Claudia Copley is the Entomology Collections Manager at the Royal BC Museum.
“I think that the Monarch might be the most famous butterfly in the world” Copley admits.
And the reason why, may be because of its annual 8-thousand kilometer round-trip migration.
“The population of Monarchs that occur in British Columbia, and west of the Rockies, spend the winter on the coast of California.
“And if you go east of the Rockies, the Monarch population migrates all the way to Mexico” Copley explains.
The Monarch Butterfly’s migration is one of the longest of any creature on Earth.
“It takes up to five generations of Monarchs to come back, so the one that flew south to Mexico in the winter does not come back…its children do” says Copley.
“They finally end up in a place they’ve never been before, and then that adult, that final adult, which has never been to Mexico, makes that journey.”
In the last two decades, the Monarch population has dropped by eighty percent.
In California, it’s due to development. In Mexico, it’s climate change.
“For example, last year they had a massive frost, and the monarch population was decimated by the cold.”
Another threat? Neonicotinoid pesticides, which are absorbed by the plant.
“And Monarchs feed on the nectar and the pollen and the tissue of the plant, and if they get those neonicotinoids into their system, then it can kill them” says Copley.
So, how can we help?
Buy organic produce, and, if you live in a region where showy milkweed grows naturally, plant some. Showy milkweed is a massive pollinator plant for bees and butterflies.
“The milkweed family” explains Copley “is the only plant that adult monarch lay their egg on, for their caterpillar to eat.
“And the caterpillar, when it eats the milkweed, it gets poisons in its body that protect it from other predators.
Which is in part why Monarchs are declining – because milkweed is treated as a noxious weed in many regions, and removed.”
If you’d like to learn more, the Royal Museum Shop has books on these beautiful creatures.
