- Photo of Dr. Jim Edson at Yellowstone
Join us at our monthly meeting to hear our guest speaker, Dr. Jim Edson, explore the migration of monarchs to Mexico.
The monarch is the only butterfly to migrate. Based on instinct alone, this insect weighing less than a paperclip somehow knows when and where it is supposed to go for the winter.
Each fall 200 to 300 million monarch butterflies from the US and Canada begin a 2,000-mile journey to a remote mountain range in west-central Mexico. They congregate in fir trees at the top of nine, extinct volcanic mountains where they hibernate for the winter.
During March the following year, they return to the southern U.S. to lay eggs to start the cycle again. It is the great-great-great-grandchildren of the spring hatching that make it back to Mexico.
Monarch tagging
Dr. Edson coordinated a tagging program in Arkansas to study the migratory patterns of the monarch for 12 years. Over 3,000 monarchs were raised in the lab or captured wild and tagged each year. He later helped organize trips to Mexico monitoring the spring migration patterns of the monarchs.
Dr. Jim Edson at Yellowstone
With a Ph.D. in paleontology from Tulane, MS in geology from the University of Arkansas and a BS in chemistry from Arkansas Tech, Dr. Edson spent several years in corporate positions before settling into an academic life teaching geology and science education at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.