Tagging Monarchs on Their Way to Mexico

Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies fly from the northern United States and Canada to a forest in the mountains of Mexico. This October, I learned to help track them.

A local nature center trained a group of us to catch monarchs in nets, very gently, and place a tiny round sticker on one wing. Each sticker has a number. If someone finds the butterfly in Mexico, scientists learn how far and how fast it traveled.

The first time I held one, my hands were shaking. It weighed almost nothing. I could feel its legs on my fingertips. I placed the sticker, wrote down the number and opened my hand. It sat there for a moment, then lifted off and flew south over the field.

We tagged sixty-three monarchs that day. I keep thinking about that first one, number WKT 418, crossing rivers, deserts and mountains, two thousand miles, on wings as thin as paper. I hope someone in Mexico finds it. I hope it gets there.