Group calls on Canadians to help gather data on monarch butterfly
Mission Monarch aims to get Canadians involved in protecting monarch butterflies
A group of researchers across Canada are calling on everyday citizens to take part in a "science blitz" over the weekend to help protect the monarch butterfly.
Mission Monarch aims to teach Canadians about the plight of the monarch while saving their breeding habitats at the same time.
The saviour in this story is an unassuming, not very well-liked plant: the milkweed.
"It's known as a host plant; that means it's the only plant on which females can lay their eggs," Daphné Laurier-Montpetit, a biologist and a coordinator of the project, told CBC's All in a Weekend.
"The caterpillar needs to feed from this plant to be able to grow."
On the hunt for milkweed
The problem is many people don't like the plant and destroy it.
That's why Mission Monarch is asking Canadians to find milkweed sites in their area and look for monarch eggs or caterpillars.
All the information inputted to their website will help scientists build a database of where the butterflies are laying their eggs.
"We want to know what's going on. Even if you don't find anything on a milkweed plant, we want to know," said Laurier-Montpetit.
The blitz doesn't need to end this weekend, Laurier-Montpetit said. The hope is information will keep pouring in that will help save the monarch population.
