With its orange and black-veined wings bordered with white dots, the monarch is one of the best-known species of butterfly in the world, as well as one of the largest in Canada. It is found throughout the southern part of the country in habitats that contain common milkweed, the only plant its caterpillars feed on. 

Every autumn, these beautiful migrators leave Southern Canada to embark on a spectacular 4,000-km journey to Central Mexico, where they overwinter before returning north in the spring.

Unfortunately, due to climate change and the destruction of its habitat, on July 21, 2022, the monarch was placed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species™ as Endangered.

Mission Monarch, a joint initiative of the Insectarium de Montréal – Espace pour la vie and the Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, is a community science program that aims to gather data on milkweed distribution and abundance, as well as on the reproductive success of the monarch butterfly, with the objective of saving the migratory populations of this endangered species.

As engaged citizens, we can easily help protect the monarch by completing as many “missions” as possible. A mission consists of three simple steps: 1) Find milkweed, 2) verify the presence of monarch eggs and/or caterpillars, 3) write down your observations, and 4) sign up and submit your information to the international database.

And what better place to do so than the mountain? The missions led by Les Amis are now over for the season, but as Jérôme explains, you can always participate in the program on your own. By submitting data on Mount Royal’s monarch population, you’ll contribute to the overall database and help identify areas where greater emphasis can be placed on the conservation of this magnificent butterfly.

^{Crédit photo: Espace pour la vie (André Sarrazin)}