Speakers: Betty Yan and Mary Oldham
The quest by the Canadian zoologists, Fred and Norah Urquhart to discover the overwintering site for the monarch butterfly, has relied on the help of citizen scientists throughout North and Central America. Small adhesive stickers were designed, tested and distributed by the Urquharts to these volunteers to track the migration of the monarchs. Between the 1950s-1980s, the Urquharts recruited >600 volunteers, resulted in the discovery of the overwintering ground in Mexico in 1975. Over 3 million monarch butterflies had been tagged with stickers by tens and thousands of volunteers to date.
Betty and Mary have been involved in using these sticker tags for 8 years. The talk will include a demonstration of applying sticker tags. About a year ago, a new technology using a light weight, solar-powered ratio tag was deployed tracking the migration of individual monarch butterflies both east and west of the Rockies in the fall of 2025. Betty and Mary have been looking into how to get involved in tagging with radio tags. The talk will also share their findings.
Mary Oldham holds a MS Degree in Special Education and taught students of various ages for 33 years. The greatest number of years were spent serving students in the RISE Special Services/Southside Special Services program. After retirement, Mary planted a small butterfly garden which attracted Monarchs. She was excited to be able to watch and learn about the entire Monarch butterfly cycle in real life –- after reading and acting out the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, to her students hundreds of times over her career. The garden has continued to grow as has the Monarch population.
Betty Yan is a member of Scientech Club. She got a BS degree in Chemistry and a PhD degree in Biochemistry. After retiring as a research biochemistry working 33 years at Eli Lilly and Co., she was interested to keep on learning other areas of science as a citizen scientist. She has no prior background in entomology. Working and learning about monarch butterfly have been fun.
Program: Tracking the migration of Monarch butterflies
Speaker: Betty Yan, PhD, biochemistry and Scientech Club member, and Mary Oldham, MS, special education
Introduced By: Betty Yan
Attendance: NESC: 122; Zoom: 27
Guests: Claudia Button, Jim and Mary Davidsen, Sandy Gosling, Vicky Ko, E. Liberato, Scott Perry, Kit Solotkin
Scribe: Russell Judd
Editor: Carl Warner
Talk’s Zoom recording found at: https://www.scientechclubvideos.org/zoom/08242026.mp4
Today's talk was about "Tracking the migration of Monarch butterflies" and was given by Betty Yun and Mary Oldham. Betty is a member of our Club and is a retired biochemist from Eli Lilly. Mary is a retired teacher of special education.
The speakers are neighbors and have developed a mutual interest in Monarch butterflies over the last eight years. They attribute a lot of progress in information to the Canadian zoologists Fred and Norah Urquhart and their efforts to discover the overwintering site for the Monarch, and the assistance of citizen scientists throughout North and Central America who have helped collect data on the
migration. The speakers also commented on the helpful developments that have occurred. One remarkable development is a small sticker which can be stuck to a butterfly or other insect and allow insect-specific data to be retrieved. Butterflies can be tracked yielding their location, flight path, and their numbers. These tags are delicate, made of plastic, and gently applied to the butterfly with glue like used on false eyelashes. Some data is available, and it is in newsletters and on the Web. Several factors have caused the numbers of Monarchs to decrease. Climate change, the use of chemicals, and a decrease in food sources are among the major culprits. There has been an 80% decline in the last decade in the number of Monarchs in the East of the Rockies migration.
In summary, it is amazing the amount of information that has been learned about the Monarch butterfly, their migration, and their changing numbers. A lot of data is being gleaned from these scientists and instruments. Things that we all need to do include being a citizen scientist and help, reduce the use of insecticides, plant native plants, and plant some milkweeds. Thanks to Mary and Betty for a very enlightening talk today.
Betty Yan Mary Oldham
