On February 5 of each year, a holiday known as Western Monarch Day is commemorated by people all across the world. Everyone, regardless of age or demographic, has a soft spot in their hearts for beautiful butterflies. They ascend to a slightly higher altitude and move about from location to location.
One species of butterfly known as the Western Monarch is known to make its way to the central coast of California during its annual journey. It is determined that the number of them is decreasing, and this is due to a variety of factors.
Western Monarch Day is commemorated to raise awareness about the plight of monarch butterflies and call for people to help save them from extinction. In addition, this day honours and celebrates the thousands upon thousands of butterflies that migrate north for the winter.
History Of Western Monarch Day
The Western monarch butterfly is a lovely sight to witness. They smoothly soar across landscapes to carry out their pollination responsibilities while sporting rich colours of red, orange, yellow, and gold. They relocate every year from all over Northern America and have an innate sense of when to migrate.
This species, which has its origins in the American Tropics, eventually spread as the milkweed, its main food source, did as well. The migration patterns of the monarchs altered as they travelled, evolving into the highly developed form that they are now.
Every time winter arrives, Monarch butterflies from the western U.S. and Canada migrate south to California because it increases their chances of survival. Future monarchs are produced there, and they return the next year.
Despite researching monarchs since the 1850s, scientists were unaware of this tendency previously. They didn’t figure out that these winged marvels travelled south for the winter and migrated north in the spring until 1930.
The task of tagging every monarch butterfly on the continent was given to a group of over 3000 North American butterfly lovers under the direction of Canadian naturalist Frederick Urquhart.
Using everyone’s information on the locations and times of monarch appearance, Urquhart observed they appeared to move gradually south, from Texas to Northern Mexico. Until 1973, it was still unclear where the monarchs spent the winter. When a hailstorm hit Mexico City at that time, a businessman by the name of Kenneth Brugger reported to Urquhart seeing a monarch “shower” fall from the western mountains.
Brugger was enlisted by Urquhart to help save the monarch butterfly, and he and his wife undertook a two-year search for these elusive insects that was only successful when they discovered where they wintered: a region of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt.
As soon as the migration route of the elusive monarch butterfly became known, more people began to visit to admire it in its natural habitat. In 2004, the state of California designated February 5 as California Western Monarch Day due to the monarchs’ massive migration being a major draw and the fact that they stay from October through March. Their primary objectives were to promote tourism and inform the public about this butterfly.
Sadly, the Western monarch butterfly has been edging closer and closer to extinction. These species are becoming less common as a result of deforestation, land degradation, excessive pesticide usage, climate change, and other variables that may affect migratory patterns, many of which have not yet been fully investigated.
It’s critical to comprehend what a reduction in their population truly means for the Western monarch butterfly population given their pollination habits and the difficulty of their trip. A startling 90% of the monarch population has decreased. Numerous conservation organisations conduct study and seek to keep the animals from going extinct.
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Western Monarch Day Activities
check out the butterflies
In person or online, have a look at the tens of thousands of butterflies that collected in California during the summer. You may even arrange visits to nearby butterfly sanctuaries to see the monarchs.
Engage in conservation-related activities
You can contribute to the cause of conservationists, raise awareness for them, or even gather information to aid researchers in learning more about this species. If you reside in California, go to your neighbourhood parks and see the tens of thousands of butterflies that routinely congregate there. By encouraging your family or friends to join you, you may spread awareness.
Make the atmosphere favourable for monarchs
Make your landscape a butterfly-friendly space. Milkweed is the primary plant that monarch butterflies look for. By avoiding pesticides and adopting natural, eco-friendly gardening supplies, you can give them a secure habitat.
Grow local milkweed and perhaps other nectar-producing plants to entice monarchs and other butterflies to your garden. However, avoid using insecticides as they kill monarch butterflies (and other insects too).
Why We Love Western Monarch Day
They are stunning beyond words.
One of those most magnificent species is the western monarch. Due of their extensive travels across the United States, they are also regarded as one of the most important pollinators. The Western Monarch Butterfly is exquisitely gorgeous, colourful, and delicate. How can we not cherish and preserve it as one of nature’s magnificent gems?
Their enigmatic migration merits consideration.
They continue to travel more miles annually than many people do. We believe that their efforts merit all of our admiration. Along with people, the Earth is home to hundreds of millions of different animal and insect species. On Western Monarch Day, people are urged to consider their actions and the over use of natural resources that is harming the ecosystem.
an improvement in conservation efforts
Eventually, celebrating this day will contribute to the success of conservation efforts. We could promote public interest to improve outcomes. The fast population decline of this national asset is heartbreaking. Western Monarch Day is critical for educating people about this significant phenomena, whose survival we must safeguard by supporting all conservation initiatives.
Final Words
On February 5, Western Monarch Day will take us to a higher, more beautiful plane through the flutter of colourful wings. This holiday was created to honour the monarch butterfly’s epic, nearly 3000-mile annual migration back to California from all over the western United States.
Butterfly migration season is a major draw for tourists, drawing throngs of people to parks and other locations where these winged insects congregate.
Although the species is never confined to a single location, today is particularly concerned about its return to the California coast. They must come back since the monarch butterfly’s population is frighteningly declining.
