Richmond Hill resident releases more than 100 monarch butterflies to Mexico

Studies show only five per cent to 10 per cent of monarchs survive in the wild

Yorkregion.com
August 21, 2018
Sheila Wang

A group of monarch butterflies took to the skies from a Richmond Hill courtyard on Aug. 17 to embark on their long journey to central Mexico.

These orange-and-black migratory insects are among some 200 monarchs that Richmond Hill resident Kimberly Chin hand-raised at her home this summer. She has released 106 monarchs so far.

“It feels so nice. It’s so easy,” said Chin, who has built a butterfly haven out of dozens of containers for monarchs at her house.

Chin found her passion for raising the insects last July at a community event hosted by Richmond Hill Garden & Horticulture Society, where a monarch butterfly expert spoke about raising monarchs and habitat restoration.

On that day, Chin went home with a little monarch caterpillar in her hands. As she hunted for fresh milkweed to feed her first caterpillar, Chin started bringing more home. By the end of last summer, she raised a total of 67 monarchs.

“A lot of them couldn’t have survived in the wild,” Chin said while carefully putting a newborn back into a container.

Several studies show only five per cent to ten per cent of monarchs survive in the wild.

However, hand-raising monarchs is not for everybody.

“It’s very labour-intensive,” said Chin’s neighbour Agnes Parr, who helps look after the butterflies. “Wherever there is an egg on a leaf, it has to be very meticulously cut out and arranged in a container.”

Before releasing the adult butterflies, Chin also invited neighbours and kids to look at the monarchs at different stages: from eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises to adult butterflies. It takes a monarch a month to complete the full life cycle.

Most adult monarchs can only live for a few weeks. Only the ones born in the late summer will live for several months and make it to Mexico.

Richmond Hill Coun. David West said the loss of habitat has become the largest threat to the species’ fragile existence. A monarch butterfly cannot survive without milkweed, which is the only plant on which monarchs lay eggs and the caterpillars feed.

The monarch’s population has dropped by more than 90 per cent from 1994 to 2014, according to a petition filed by scientists from several environmental organizations.

Luckily, Chin has not run into much difficulty finding milkweed to feed her caterpillars in Richmond Hill these two years, as the town has stepped up efforts to help protect these threatened species.

The Town of Richmond Hill signed the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge in 2016 as a commitment to help save the monarchs and restore the habitat.

“It is heartbreaking for me see their population declining very much,” said West who spearheaded the move to sign the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge.

Growing up raising monarchs with his family, West noticed the loss of natural habitat for monarchs in Richmond Hill due to land development and pesticide use.

“The effort like the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge is making the municipalities realize that there are real values in native species,” West added.

Richmond Hill has planted more than 50 butterfly milkweed species in two restoration areas over the past year, according to a staff report.

In the afternoon of Aug. 17, Chin went ahead to release another group of tagged monarchs who will join many other monarchs from Southern Canada and the U.S. to travel some 3,000 kilometres to central Mexico for the winter.

It is a one-way trip for these monarchs. Only their third-generation offspring will be make it back north to lay eggs in the summer.

“This is an absolute wonder of nature,” West said, noting that there are many ways the public can help save the species.

Richmond Hill has given away 70 butterfly milkweed flowers and more than 1,000 native wildflower seed packages at various occasions to expand the use of native plants on private properties over the past year.

“I care very much about the species like monarch butterflies specifically,” West said. “I also think it’s an opportunity for us to have a broader conversation in communities like Richmond Hill about how we can create a better environment for the future.”