MANITOULIN—While entomologist Dr. Joe Shorthouse has not seen any monarch larvae this fall, a sign he finds worrying, early numbers from Point Pelee National Park show that monarch numbers have risen from last year’s all-time low.
“I think this was a much better year than anticipated,” Dr. Shorthouse told The Expositor, noting that the summer weather conditions provided for a very healthy milkweed crop.
While it is unusual to see adult monarchs in late September, over the weekend the professor and his wife travelled to Providence Bay to search the dunes for monarchs and found one—a newly emerged adult presumably readying itself for the flight across Lake Huron.
On a recent trip to Wisconsin and South Dakota, the couple was pleased to see over 100 monarch butterflies within a three-hour period. “I’ve never experienced that before—that was a good sign.”
From research, Dr. Shorthouse has found that populations are indeed up this year, but not to where they should be.
“But I think Manitoulin did very well,” he said, adding that he had seen 12 in a small patch in July on the north shore of the Island. “But I haven’t seen any larvae, which causes me some concern. I’m just hoping it was bad timing.”
Dr. Shorthouse explained that the monarchs seen in July are the hearty souls that make the trek from Mexico to Manitoulin—the grandchildren or great grandchildren of the butterflies that made it from Manitoulin the year before. “With monarchs, this makes their journey even more amazing,” he said.
“The critical thing is to have seen adults in the month of September,” the professor said. “Those are the ones that are making their way south.”
In a late August CBC article, Point Pelee park interpreters reported seeing more monarchs than the year before. Some of these butterflies, Dr. Shorthouse explained, come directly from Manitoulin and use Point Pelee as a roosting spot.
“People on Manitoulin can look at this with pride,” he said.
“More people are concerned now about the monarch population than ever,” he said.
Dr. Shorthouse spoke of ‘citizen science’ and the dedicated schoolteachers who are bringing the monarch’s plight to light.
