Tagged Manitoba monarch butterfly completes five-week trek to Mexico
A monarch butterfly tagged in Winnipeg this summer has successfully crossed into Mexico, marking the first of a 29-butterfly cohort to complete the migration.
In late August, a team from the Assiniboine Park Zoo, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the Living Prairie Museum captured and tagged 29 monarch butterflies on the Canadian Prairies using miniature solar-powered radio transmitters. The first tagged butterfly, MB26011, covered roughly 2,300 kilometres over five weeks, reaching the northern border of Mexico on Tuesday. Conservation program manager Laura Burns highlighted the feat as a remarkable example of the species' endurance despite threats such as predators, vehicle collisions, and habitat loss.
While MB26011 continues toward the oyamel fir forests of central Mexico, three other tagged monarchs have already ceased transmitting, likely indicating mortality. Another tagged butterfly, Eddie, was located southwest of Kansas City and still has about 1,700 kilometres to travel. The project aims to map migration routes to protect essential stopover habitats across North America.
