{"id":81630,"date":"2019-09-11T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=81630"},"modified":"2019-10-02T15:07:12","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T22:07:12","slug":"monarchs-the-curlew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=81630","title":{"rendered":"Monarchs + the Curlew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This past month we have been spending a lot of time at the\nCurlew National Grasslands for a very special reason: Monarch butterflies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Curlew is a grassland managed by the Caribou-Targhee\nNational Forest and is composed primarily of agriculture land that was retired decades\nago and now serves as expansive, rich habitat for a whole slew of species. It\nis a very special place whose location in southeast Idaho gives it the unique\nability to serve as part of the highway for western populations of monarch butterflies\nduring their yearly migration to California. Monarchs flock to the Curlew to\nrest, mate, and start a new generation in the shade of its riparian areas that\nare chock full of showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, loss of habitat and food sources have caused\nmonarch populations to plummet. The western population is really struggling and\nwhere thousands upon hundred thousands of monarchs used to pass through the\nwestern United States now only a few hundred or thousand are seen.But the Curlew\nhasn\u2019t given up on Monarchs yet! It still welcomes them with the promise of\nshade, food, and a possible mate in the area. For that reason, monarchs are\nstill flitting through the expansive grassland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Curlew supports lots of nectar plants and the riparian areas have some awesome shading trees-Eastern monarch populations do not like shade but the hot sun of the West has taught Western migrating monarchs to seek out shade!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As interns on the Caribou-Targhee we had the privilege of\npartnering with state agencies and citizen scientists to document the monarchs\npassing through the Curlew this year. (Here I was, thinking I would never see\nor experience what it is like to see monarchs migrating when suddenly I am\nthrown right into the science behind tracking and monitoring them!) Monarch\nsurveys occur all over the United States and are fueled by the research and\nwork of people like Dr. David James and organizations like the Integrated\nMonarch Monitoring Program-thankfully, there are a lot of people that care\nabout monarchs \ud83d\ude0a <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preforming monarch surveys means gearing up with butterfly\nnets, data sheets, sunscreen\u2026and lots of water\u2026and then getting to work. And let\nme just say, catching a butterfly is not as easy as it seems\u2026but when you do\nfinally catch one you cannot help the smile that spreads over your face, it\u2019s\nthe best combination of science and feeling like a kid again. Gently reaching\nin and grasping the little migrant in the proper way and sliding them out of\nthe net is a surprise in and of itself because suddenly the vibrant colors of\ntheir wings and sharp white polka dots on their black body are no longer muted\nby the mesh of the net or the haze in the air. And my goodness are they are\nexquisite. Some of them are more tattered and torn around the edges letting you\nknow they have come to the Curlew to mate and continue the migration through\ntheir offspring while others are almost fluorescent in color and itching to\ntravel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The bright, untattered wings of this monarch suggest that this is a young and ready to fly to California!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The butterfly patiently grasps your fingers as you attach a small tag to the proper area of its wing (so that its flying ability isn\u2019t hindered) and reluctantly allows you to open up its wings (with which you get another pleasant shock of wonder as their deep orange wings, rimmed and webbed with velvet black, completely open in front of you) and look for the presence or lack of a small black dot on each wing. If the monarch has these dots it is a male (other butterfly species\u2019 males emit pheromones from these dots of specialized scales, but the jury is still out on what monarch males use them for) and if not, it is a female. After checking that you have written down all the necessary data you slowly detach your fingertips from their wings. At this point, it is a 50\/50 chance whether the monarch will leap back into the sky immediately or stay on your finger for a bit, gently flapping its wings and making up its mind (all to your complete delight). Experiencing monarch butterflies in such a hands-on manner was amazing-something I never thought I could have done! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Me releasing a monarch for the first time after learning how to properly tag it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But we don\u2019t just pay attention to the adults; monarch\nsurveys also include searching for instars on the milkweed plants and tiny\nmonarch eggs. This means recognizing monarch instar leaf grazing and peering\nover and under the soft milkweed leaves in search for the happy culprit. When\nan instar is found you can tell what stage it is in by the presence or lack of\nstripes and antennae. Data is recorded and the instar grazes on; you can almost\nsee it growing in front of your eyes as it chops away leaf after leaf! Monarch\neggs are a bit harder because spots of dried milkweed latex on the leaf can\nfool you repeatedly. But when you finally find an egg, you realize that they have\nan incredible design: small and rounded at the bottom with a slight Hershey\u2019s\nkiss top and vertical lines traveling up across its entire surface. Perfect\nlooking and so small you must confirm it using a hand lens! We also care a lot\nabout monarch habitat and need to document the characteristics of the areas\nthey frequent in order to better understand how we can remediate the loss in\ntheir numbers. This means walking transects and using vegetation frames to\ncollect data on the landscape that the monarchs love. The healthy mix of nectar\nplants, milkweed, and shade trees on the Curlew is what the monarchs really\nseem to key into in southeast Idaho! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Check out this fat and happy instar that we found! The bright stripes and antenna suggest that is is in its final stages before forming its chrysalis <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to interagency collaboration and the help of citizen\nscientists the presence of a special section of western monarch\u2019s migration highway\nat the Curlew was confirmed again this year with notably high monarch counts\nfor the entire western half of the Unites States. I was so happy to be a part\nof it \ud83d\ude0a <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A monarch in all of its glory right after emerging from its chrysalis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past month we have been spending a lot of time at the Curlew National Grasslands for a very special reason: Monarch butterflies. The Curlew is a grassland managed by the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and is composed primarily of agriculture … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7528,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81630"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81915,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81630\/revisions\/81915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}