Monarchs: Dr. Fred Urquhart and His Citizen Scientists

Fred Albert Urquhart was born in 1911. As a boy growing up in Toronto, he was fascinated by butterflies, especially monarchs. He had observed these butterflies flying very determinedly south each fall, and wondered where they might be going. Obviously they were headed to warmer climes to escape the freezing temperatures of a Canada winter, but where did they go?

Fred grew up and studied biology and entomology (the study of insects) at the University of Toronto, eventually earning his PhD in 1940. After World War II, during which he taught meteorology to students in the Royal Canadian Air Force, he became the Director of Zoology and Paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum. He also taught at his alma mater as a full professor of zoology. He helped found the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, and even produced a very popular television series. This was definitely a very busy man!

But butterflies remained his first love. During his undergraduate years at the University of Toronto, he embarked in earnest on his lifelong quest to track monarch butterflies. In 1937, he began trying to tag monarch butterflies - something that had never been done with insects before. Most of the early tags he tried simply weren't sticky enough, and it took three years before he tried using the same adhesive labels found on items in stores. These worked perfectly, and soon he and his wife (Norah, whom he married in 1945) were raising and tagging thousands of butterflies each year.

The Urquharts wrote an article asking for help in tagging monarchs in different locations around the country, and 12 people responded - Urquhart's first citizen scientists. These initial volunteers formed the Insect Migration Association, today known as Monarch Watch. Soon, others were joining in, including scout troops and garden clubs. The tags they applied to the monarchs requested that anyone who found a tagged butterfly should send it to the University of Toronto, and people were happy to oblige. Soon, hundreds of tagged butterflies (some still alive, folded into the flowers on which they'd been found!) were arriving, and a migration path pattern began to emerge. Monarch butterflies living east of the Rocky Mountains all appeared to funnel south to Texas each fall - and then they disappeared.

Fred and Norah Urquhart

The Urquharts began traveling to Texas to try to find the overwintering sites. But despite endless days spent searching, they struck out again and again. Finally, in 1972, Norah wrote to Mexican newspapers to ask for help in tracking these elusive creatures even further south. And the next year, they received a response from Kenneth C. Brugger, an American naturalist and textile engineer living in Mexico City, offering his assistance. Ken and his wife, Catalina, began traversing the countryside, asking locals what they knew of monarch butterflies. Each new bit of information narrowed the search, and by 1974, Ken and Catalina (then known as Cathy) were zeroing in on the mountains in Michoacan, Central Mexico, where local loggers helped to point the way.

It was January 9, 1975 when Brugger telephoned Dr. Urquhart from Mexico. "We have found them!" he cried. "Millions of monarchs!" On a few isolated mountain peaks, 10,000 feet above sea level, the monarchs were clustered thickly among the oyamel firs. Dr. Urquhart and Norah visited in 1976 to see for themselves. As Urquhart stood marveling at the sight, recovering from the breathless mountain climb, he noticed something incredible. One of his tags was attached to a nearby monarch! Further research showed this monarch had been tagged by Jim Gilbert the previous summer in Minnesota. They now had conclusive proof that the eastern population of monarchs migrated south to Mexico for the winter. It was a life's work realized.

Later that year 1976, Dr. Urquhart wrote an article for National Geographic about his experiences. It was the cover story that month, "Found at Last: The Monarch's Winter Home", with a picture on the cover of Catalina among the wintering monarchs. His dedication and excitement is evident in the story, written in first person. He documented his own first words upon seeing the wintering grounds in person - "Unbelievable! What a glorious, incredible sight!" He had waited decades for this moment, and it fulfilled dreams beyond his imagination.

Though they had accomplished their major goal, the Urquharts didn't stop caring about and working for monarchs. Both lived many more years, and spent their time continuing their research about the migration itself. By the time of their deaths (Fred in 2002, Norah in 2009, both aged 90), a dozen wintering sites in the mountains had been discovered, and the Urquharts had made sure the Mexican government protected these sites from loggers and other interference. Closer to home, Monarch Watch, by now a well-known organization, was helping gardeners everywhere learn how to help monarchs by planting milkweed and nectar plants. In 1998, they were awarded Canada's highest civilian award, the Order of Canada, in recognition of their work. These tireless scientists had solved a mystery, and made a single species of butterfly one of the best-known and most beloved creatures of all time.