Neb. man helps butterfly migration

NORFOLK, Neb. — From mid-August through October, it's monarch madness for Eugene Young of Plainview, Neb.

Young volunteers as part of the University of Kansas' Monarch Watch, tagging hundreds of butterflies as the distinctive insects flit through the Midwest on their way to central Mexico to roost for the winter.

Each sticker that Young has used to tag some 930 butterflies this year has a toll-free telephone number and a butterfly identification number. Young keeps track of each find by noting the date it was tagged, whether the butterfly was male or female, and whether it was wild or reared.

Then he releases the butterfly to continue on its journey.

Many questions remain unanswered about the fall migration of the monarch population. Tagging is one way to pinpoint the monarch migration pattern.

Unlike most insects in temperate climates, monarchs cannot survive winter's cold, according to Monarch Watch. Day length and temperature changes influence the migration south.

Monarchs travel much farther than any other tropical butterfly and amaze researchers by how they travel en masse to the same winter roosts — often to the same set of trees — as their ancestors.

Because of the butterfly's life cycle, individual monarchs make the round-trip just once. It's their descendants that make the trip south the following fall. Somehow, they know their way.

“Once they start south for the winter, the new butterflies — no matter if they're from the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas — they go all the way. They've never been there to Mexico. It's quite a feat,” Young said.

Thousands of monarchs roost in certain areas, Young said.

“They'll be so heavy, they'll actually break branches on the trees. The Mexicans try to protect the area really well where they roost, because people will come in and do logging there. The monarch people have people hired, and so does the Mexican government, just to look for illegal loggers,” Young said.

Anyone in Mexico who finds a butterfly with a tag can call the phone number and will be paid about $5 for providing the information.

Last year, four butterflies Young tagged were recovered. The year before, seven of his monarchs were found.

Young, a retired farmer, said he has always been interested in butterflies and birds. A friend from Kansas got him started on tagging.

“They came up here to visit and brought 25 tags along in late August in 2004, and he said ‘I'm going to leave you 25 tags and you just see if you can get some tagged.' Before they got back to Kansas, I used the 25 tags,” Young said. “The next year, I purchased my own tags.”

Since he started tagging, Young has learned a lot about his fair-weather friends, including more about their habitat. For example, they feed and also deposit their eggs on milkweed.

“A lot of the milkweeds the farmers have sprayed in the field, so now it's critical for habitat,” Young said. “I went from killing the plants to planting some around the edge of the property. That's pretty important.”

Although Young gets some ribbing from his buddies, he knows he's making a difference.

“They all laugh when I'm telling about them ... and pretty soon, there goes a monarch, and now they're all aware of them.

“One of my friends the other day said ‘Gee, we were camping the other day, and the monarchs kept coming around.'

“Two years ago,” Young said, “he didn't pay any attention.”

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