PRAIRIE CITY, Iowa — Monarch butterflies make a pit stop at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge on their migration journey to Mexico.
Millions of monarch butterflies migrate from Canada to Mexico on a nearly 3,000 mile journey. Along the way, they stop at Neal Smith which provides a space for them to rest and eat milkweed to fuel up for the trip.
When they reach the refuge, workers tag the monarchs to get data on travel patterns, percentage of monarchs that make the entire trip, and ones that don’t. When the refuge tags the monarchs, other stopping locations from Iowa to Mexico will look for the tags that have a specific number, and record that for surveys…