Wednesday was the last mass monarch butterfly release of the season. Activists are tracking the released butterflies to discover their migration pathway.
The most recent monarch release took place on Wednesday in St. George, to mark the opening of a water conservation park. It was the last butterfly release of the season.
Robert Stroud is a monarch activist. He says he has been collecting and releasing butterflies since he was six and later began releasing the butterflies professionally. However, the butterflies he releases these days are not ones he has captured on his own.
"I work with breeders,” he said. “These breeders are the same people who supply butterfly houses.”
Some of the wings of the butterflies released are marked with felt-tip Sharpies so other monarch activists and researchers can more easily identify that these specific butterflies came from Utah.
Stroud said it is essential for scientists understand the monarch migration patterns because they may be placed on the endangered species list.
“The monarch is an icon and that icon is going through a problem right now,” he said. “They are looking to put the monarch on the endangered species list because of certain things that have taken place.”
The butterfly habitat is diminishing rapidly mostly due to the expansion of agriculture. As farmland is expanding it is destroying milkweed, which is the only thing monarch caterpillars eat and build their crystalis.