A citizen army for conservation: Quantifying participatory research on monarch

butterflies and its impacts on science, conservation, and behavior

Leslie Ries and Karen OberhauserUniversity of Maryland

Dept of BiologyNational Socio-environmental Synthesis Center

University of MinnesotaDept of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology and

Extension Service

Overview of monarch biology

Stage 1: Stage 1: OverwinteringOverwintering

Stage 2: Stage 2: Spring migrationSpring migration

Stage 3: Summer breedingStage 3: Summer breeding

Stage 4: Stage 4: Fall migrationFall migration

Every stage of the monarch’s migratory and life cycle is monitored

Spring mig

ratio

n

Breeding &

expansion

OverwinterColony counts(WWF-Mx, TMC)

Spring migration JN

Juveniles & parasitesMLMP, MH

Adult Counts (NABA, IL, OH, FL, Shapiro, Weber)

arrival

TaggingMW, SWM

migration

Fall

Fall RoostsCM, LP, PP, JN

Fall migration JN, MW, CR

Photo: A. Davis

MONITORING PROGRAMS•NABA: North American Butterfly Association count program•IL: Illinois monitoring network•OH: Ohio monitoring network•Shapiro: No. CA monitoring program•Weber: MN monitoring site •MLMP: Monarch Larvae Monitoring Project•MH: Monarch Health•JN: Journey North•WWF-Mx: World Wildlife Fund in Mexico•TMC: Thanksgiving Monarch Counts•MW: MonarchWatch•SWM: Southwest Monarchs•CR: Correo Real•CM: Cape May roost monitoring•LP: Long Point roost monitoring•PP: Peninsula Point roost monitoring

Volunteers spent ~86,000 hours monitoring monarchs in 2011

• This map shows the number of hours for monarch-centric projects only

• There are multiple citizen-science projects that collect data on all adult butterflies, including monarchs, adding additional hundreds of hours of time by dedicated volunteers.

Citizen-science data have had a substantial impact on scholarship

Dark bars: studies using CS dataLight bars: studies not using CS data

Participation promotes and supports conservation activities

• Over 5600 people have registered “way-stations” and many put up signs that can engage the public

• Cit-sci data have been used to support many conservation activities such as site management, supporting conservation in legal battles, documenting losses due to habitat changes or natural disasters

Impacts of participating on volunteer behavior from one program

Participation:•Raises awareness of habitat loss and impacts on monarchs• Encourages support of

conservation in many ways

Num

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of r

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Nu

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Conclusions

Volunteers spend tens of thousands of hours each year collecting data specifically on monarchs (in addition to the tens of thousands of hours largely different volunteers spend performing general butterfly surveys)

Data collected by citizen-scientists have made substantial contributions to our knowledge of monarch biology, especially migration and population dynamics

Monarch volunteers are highly engaged to begin with, and participation increases their involvement in conservation and outreach

There is still tremendous potential to increase monitoring and both its scientific and social impacts

Thanks to the thousands of volunteers, program directors, and to many funding agencies, especially NSF.