{"id":1482,"date":"2014-06-27T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2016-10-07T15:44:33","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T15:44:33","slug":"monarch-generations-followed-weve-finally-tracked-down-these-elusive-butterflies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/en\/monarch-generations-followed-weve-finally-tracked-down-these-elusive-butterflies\/","title":{"rendered":"Monarch Generations Followed: We\u2019ve Finally Tracked Down These Elusive Butterflies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2_Debbie_Oppermann\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that the Canadian Wildlife Federation has been worried about the monarch butterfly for quite some time. After their numbers dropped to their all time lowest in 2012, our hearts dropped along with them. We needed to do more. We absolutely needed to protect these majestic butterflies. So we paired up with the Department of Integrative Biology at University of Guelph to delve into the reasoning behind this dramatic population decrease.<\/p>\n

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The answer lay with their migration and the many generations it takes to make the trip to and from their overwintering grounds. Until recently, scientists could only estimate the monarch butterfly\u2019s migratory patterns, and many believed individual monarchs made the migratory journey. That just wasn\u2019t good enough for us. We needed to know, once and for all, where these winged wonders were going and where they had come from.<\/p>\n

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The University of Guelph team clocked 35,000 kilometres driving across 17 states and two provinces to accomplish this. They netted more than 800 monarchs and quickly began analyzing the chemical elements in their wings. You see, monarchs primarily eat milkweed in their larvae state and since the plant\u2019s chemical signature varies from one place to another, they were able to find out each butterfly\u2019s birthplace by analyzing their wings. Remarkable, right?<\/p>\n

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What they found was that monarchs make their long migration northward through successive generations, not all in one go. So the parents lay eggs that hatch along the way (up to five generations to make it to Canada) then their young continue on. Moreover, they found that<\/p>\n

many of the successive generations of monarchs were born in Texas and Oklahoma, while others were in the U.S. Midwest and finally a larger area of the northeast coast and the Midwest. That tells us that it is critical for the monarch\u2019s future to foster the butterfly\u2019s habitat in these areas first by conserving their food (either planting more milkweed, or at the very least, not destroying the milkweed grown there), and secondly by keeping a close eye on the negative impact genetically modified corn and soy is having on the species.<\/p>\n

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So what can you do? You can start by pledging to make your garden a safe place<\/a> for monarchs! When you pledge to help monarchs, you\u2019ll get the dos and don\u2019ts of gardening for monarchs including what blooms to plant, what common gardening tool you should ditch, and more. Take the pledge today<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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Suivi des g\u00e9n\u00e9rations de monarques\u00a0:<\/strong>Nous avons enfin retrac\u00e9 le parcours de ces papillons insaisissables<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Ce n\u2019est pas un secret que la F\u00e9d\u00e9ration canadienne de la faune est pr\u00e9occup\u00e9e par le sort des papillons monarques depuis un certain temps.Depuis que leurs effectifs sont tomb\u00e9s \u00e0 leur plus bas niveau historique en 2012, nous avons le c\u0153ur bris\u00e9.Nous avons alors ressenti la n\u00e9cessit\u00e9 de nous investir davantage.Nous devions absolument prot\u00e9ger ces papillons majestueux.Aussi avons-nous \u00e9tabli un jumelage avec le d\u00e9partement de biologie int\u00e9grative de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Guelph dans l\u2019optique d\u2019expliquer cette diminution spectaculaire de la population de monarques.<\/p>\n

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La r\u00e9ponse r\u00e9side dans leur migration et les nombreuses g\u00e9n\u00e9rations n\u00e9cessaires \u00e0 l\u2019accomplissement de leur voyage depuis et vers leurs aires d\u2019hivernage.Jusqu\u2019\u00e0 r\u00e9cemment, les scientifiques ne pouvaient qu\u2019estimer les habitudes migratoires des papillons monarques, et beaucoup croyaient que de simples individus \u00e9taient en mesure d\u2019effectuer seuls ce parcours migratoire.Mais ces donn\u00e9es ne nous suffisaient pas.Nous devions savoir, une fois pour toutes, o\u00f9 ces merveilles ail\u00e9es se rendaient et d\u2019o\u00f9 elles provenaient.<\/p>\n

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L\u2019\u00e9quipe de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Guelph a parcouru un total 35\u00a0000\u00a0km, sur les routes de 17\u00a0\u00c9tats et de deux provinces pour accomplir cette t\u00e2che.Ils ont captur\u00e9 au filet plus de 800\u00a0monarques et ont rapidement commenc\u00e9 \u00e0 analyser les \u00e9l\u00e9ments chimiques pr\u00e9sents dans leurs ailes.En effet, les monarques se nourrissent principalement d\u2019ascl\u00e9piade \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9tat larvaire, et \u00e9tant donn\u00e9 que la signature chimique de la plante varie d\u2019un lieu \u00e0 l\u2019autre, ils ont r\u00e9ussi \u00e0 \u00e9tablir le lieu de naissance de chaque papillon par l\u2019analyse de ses ailes.Remarquable, non?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ils ont donc d\u00e9couvert que les monarques effectuent leur longue migration vers le Nord par g\u00e9n\u00e9rations successives, et non d\u2019une seule traite.Les parents pondent ainsi des \u0153ufs qui \u00e9closent en cours de route (il faut jusqu\u2019\u00e0 cinq g\u00e9n\u00e9rations pour se rendre au Canada), puis leur prog\u00e9niture poursuit le voyage.Ils ont en outre constat\u00e9 qu\u2019un grand nombre de g\u00e9n\u00e9rations successives de monarques sont n\u00e9es au Texas et en Oklahoma, tandis que d\u2019autres sont n\u00e9es dans le Midwest am\u00e9ricain, et d\u2019autres enfin dans une r\u00e9gion plus \u00e9tendue de la c\u00f4te Nord-Est.Ces r\u00e9sultats nous indiquent qu\u2019il est essentiel pour l\u2019avenir des monarques de favoriser leurs habitats dans ces r\u00e9gions, d\u2019abord par la conservation de leur nourriture (soit en plantant davantage d\u2019ascl\u00e9piades ou, \u00e0 tout le moins, en ne d\u00e9truisant pas les ascl\u00e9piades d\u00e9j\u00e0 pr\u00e9sentes), et d\u2019autre part en surveillant de tr\u00e8s pr\u00e8s les effets n\u00e9fastes que les plantations de ma\u00efs et de soja g\u00e9n\u00e9tiquement modifi\u00e9s ont sur cette esp\u00e8ce.<\/p>\n

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Alors, que pouvez-vous faire?Vous pouvez commencer \u00e0 vous engager \u00e0 faire de votre jardin un endroit s\u00e9curitaire<\/a> pour les papillons monarques!En vous engageant ainsi, vous int\u00e9grerez des choses \u00e0 faire et \u00e0 ne pas faire pour la survie des monarques \u00e0 vos activit\u00e9s de jardinage, comme le choix de plantes appropri\u00e9es, l\u2019abandon d\u2019outils de jardinage ordinaires, et plus encore.Engagez-vous d\u00e8s aujourd’hui!<\/a><\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s no secret that the Canadian Wildlife Federation has been worried about the monarch butterfly for quite some time. After their numbers dropped to their all time lowest in 2012,…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,638],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-1482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-endangered-species","category-fields-forests","tag-monarch-butterfly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1485,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions\/1485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}