How to help disappearing monarch butterflies during migration through Kansas

There’s a certain type of joy that comes out of catching a glimpse of a monarch butterfly.

Maybe it's the fact that their migration is a scientific miracle, being a multigenerational journey across most of North and Central America, or maybe because they're very pretty to look at.

Either way, Kansans have been spoiled spotting the signature orange, black and white butterflies migrating from their northern nesting grounds in the U.S. and Canada in the fall to their southern hibernation spots in Mexico, and the other way in the spring.

The vast plains filled with native plants and flowers have always offered its nectar for fuel as groups of monarchs feast during their unique multigenerational migration in one of a few direct pathways mapped out through years of research.

"It's essentially nature's Kool-Aid," said Dennis Dinwiddie, director of conservation and education at the Topeka Zoo. "They are getting the nutrition that they need to turn into energy in their bodies so they can keep on migrating, keep on looking for the right flowers, the right nectar and keep on going."

According to Kansas State Research and Extension, Kansas is one of 10 states listed as critical in supporting the monarch migration as it creates a corridor of habitats between the Midwest and High Plains.

How to help the monarch butterflies

Thanks to a changing climate and human-caused changes to the environment over the past few thousand years, this unique migration is under threat. 

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as "endangered" — two steps from extinct.

The group estimates that the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined 22% to 72% over 10 years, depending on the measurement method.

More:Monarch butterflies listed as endangered: 'Just a devastating decline'

Milkweed, which the butterflies rely on to lay eggs in during the spring and later is used to feed the growing caterpillar, has become less common in the wild due to habitat loss, but that's only the start of the issues.

Changing weather patterns and severe storms have a significant impact on moving migrations, as well as the use of pesticides and herbicides in crops.

A recent study by the World Wildlife Fund found that "monarchs are highly sensitive to weather and climate: They depend on environmental cues — temperature in particular — to trigger reproduction, migration, and hibernation."

Topeka Zoo offers free tagging classes for monarchs

If you want to help keep the magic of the monarch alive, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks recommends you plant milkweed in your garden and provides guidelines to create new habitats and other resources.

Another way to help is to become a citizen scientist and help tag the estimated millions of monarchs that migrate through the area by contacting local conservation organizations and attending tagging events.

The Topeka Zoo offers free tagging classes during the peak migration period.

On a recent Tuesday, about 40 citizen scientists gathered at the Kansas Museum of History to hear from Dinwiddie, of the Topeka Zoo. They then were given nets to catch and help tag the migration themselves.

"What we're hoping for is lots and lots more citizen scientists just like you recapturing butterflies and recording the number that is on each and every one of those tags," Dinwiddie said. "That will give us an enormous amount of baseline scientific information about the route they're taking, the speed at which they're taking between different points along that entire route — and that gives us information about the areas we need to preserve for monarch butterflies."

Not long after being released into the woods and fields around the museum, newly caught monarchs began to trickle back to Dinwiddie and his team.

Shannon Thulin and her two daughters Alex, 9, and Kara, 10, were on the prowl and found a female monarch to be tagged.

"I thought it was pretty fun," Thulin said. "I'm ready to catch some more!"

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Here are 7 facts to know about monarch butterflies

1. The butterflies' distinctive coloring warns predators that the monarch is foul tasting and poisonous.

2. In their larval stage, monarch caterpillars feed on milkweed. Adult monarchs get their nutrients from flower nectar.

3. Monarchs can travel 50 to 100 miles a day. It can take up to two months to complete their southward journey to winter habitats.

4. Monarchs can produce four generations during one summer. The first three generations live two to six weeks and continue moving north. The fourth generation can live up to nine months. These are the butterflies that migrate south for winter.

5. The butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees. They will sit in the sun or "shiver" their wings to warm up.

6. Monarchs can survive below-freezing temperatures if they stay dry. If they get wet and the temperature drops, they will freeze to death.

7. The monarch butterflies' fall migration pathways lead southward — mostly to Mexico but also to Florida and California.

Evert Nelson can be reached at enelson@cjonline.com or 785-231-9565.