Tagging monarch butterflies for science
In this activity, students place small stickers (tags) onto caught or newly emerged monarch butterflies and release them into the environment. The tag number, information about the butterfly and its release location are entered into the Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust’s ‘Record a tagged butterfly’ release page.
Note: tagging will begin again in 2025.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
explain what tagging is and why tagging is used
describe the experience of tagging their own butterflies
record and enter data into the MBNZT online database
understand the relationship between releasing and recovering tagged butterflies
appreciate that citizen scientists work in partnership with scientists to answer interesting and relevant questions.
Laying an egg on a milkweed plant
Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on swan plants and other milkweeds. Females lay between 300–400 eggs at a rate of about 40 per day.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
instructions on what you need and what to do
discussion questions.
Nature of science
Scientists use tagging so they can monitor an individual’s behaviour in a natural setting. In this case, information about overwintering and population numbers can only be collected in the butterfly’s natural settings.
Useful links
Visit the Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust website to learn more about tagging butterflies.
Monarch Watch (USA) is an educational outreach programme that engages citizen scientists in large-scale research projects. It involves more than 2,000 schools, nature centres and other organisations in the US and Canada, and an estimated 100,000+ students and adults participate in tagging activities each fall.
This Stuff news article includes a video of a citizen scientist tagging a monarch butterfly.
