Public monarch TAgging day-Antonio Ruvalcaba

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. This past weekend on August 14th we had a public tagging event. In total 66 people came out including children and adults. I was able to show the the process of tagging a monarch and the data collected such as wing condition and tag number. It was an amazing experience seeing children and adults get excited about monarchs. Many had very good questions that got me thinking about different aspects that had never crossed my mind. Many do not realize the species has seen a drastic decline in recent years, with the status falling under warranted but precluded. Such designation means protection for the species under the Endangered Species Act is justified but other listings take priority. The decision will be revisited in two years from December 2020.  At the public tagging day, I was able to help guide the public to the resources that would allow them to be a part of the ongoing science. Such avenues included Southwest Monarch Study, where they could actually get tags to mark individuals by themselves. My favorite part of the day was allowing visitors to release a monarch and watching their big smile as it flew away from their hand, in an instant. Such moments would not be possible without the collaboration of agencies including Bureau of Land Management, Utah Division of Wildlife resources, United States Forest service, and the National park Service. Can you spot the monarch just released?

A visitor releasing a monarch after being tagged
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