By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
GREAT BEND — Each September, Kansas is witness to one of the most impressive migrations in all of nature. Millions of monarch butterflies, weighing less than a gram but still able to travel up to 30 miles an hour, travel through the Midwest on the way from Canada to Mexico. The annual migration, which includes between three and five generations of butterflies, is a natural phenomenon.
University of Kansas Professor Chip Taylor studies monarchs and founded Monarch Watch. The Kansas Wetlands Education Center at Cheyenne Bottoms has participated in the organization's monarch tagging program each year since its inception.
"Kansas is monarch central because Chip Taylor is one of the top monarch researchers in the world," said Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks Educator Pam Martin. "What he's determining is how the migration works, what's happening and why, so we can stabilize the migration."
Now the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed the monarch butterfly on its "red list" as an endangered species. Unlike the U.S. Endangered Species List, the IUCN list carries no legal weight, but it does indicate great peril for the species.
"The monarch goes through three countries: Canada, the United States, and Mexico," said Martin. "Those three countries have an agreement to promote the monarch butterfly and save habitat. That's the big one. Habitat loss is major. By planting native and planting milkweed, you're helping to mitigate some of that habitat loss."
IUCN estimates monarch numbers have declined between 22 percent and 72 percent over the past decade, depending on the measurement method. Numbers may be down by as much as 85 or 95 percent east of the Rockies over the last 30 years. Along with loss of habitat, climate change and pesticide use are two other possible factors in declining numbers.
"It's everything," said Martin. "It's a perfect storm. In a way, they're an indicator species. Monarch butterflies are beautiful and they're wonderful - they're one of my favorite insects. But they're not the only insect this is happening to. We're losing bumble bee species and other pollinator species. They call it the 'insect apocalypse.'"
Martin said there are things people can do to help boost monarch numbers, namely planting native wildflowers and limiting pesticide use. Milkweed is the most important native plant as it is the monarch's only caterpillar host plant.
Not only are monarchs a beautiful component of nature, but as pollinators that travel across the borders of three countries and many more states, their survival is essential to many ecosystems.
"The fact that they can migrate over 2,000 miles, and do this with the information stored in their heads, is unbelievable," Martin said. "It would be devastating to lose that migration behavior. It's a wonder of the natural world."