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I have labeled this as "Captive" since we basically raised it from an egg that was laid in the Monarch Waystation we built on our land as part of the nationwide effort to help stop the decline of the Monarch Butterfly population. Since the population has decreased from a "BILLION" (yes with a B) which covered over 44.5 acres in Mexico in 1995 to 33 million and covering only 1.65 acres last year, we decided to get involved. The decline has created a fear the Monarch migration into the US and Canada may disappear, and monarchwatch.org of the University of Kansas is encouraging people to develop habitat (i.e. plant milkweed ) specifically for the Monarch Butterfly. FYI Monarchs will only lay their eggs on milkweed since milkweed is toxic and makes them taste bad to predators, and GMO food production has/is enabling Round Up to eliminate thousands of arcresof milkweed each year.
The butterfly in this image was collected as an egg on a milkweed leaf in our Waystation, placed in a 24x24x30 protective rearing cage and after hatching, supplied milkweed leaves to feed on until it formed it's chrysalis, which is amazing to watch. I'll post some images later. When it came out of the chrysalis, it's wings had properly filled out, and it was ready to fly, we placed it on a milkweed flower in our Waystation. Luckily it was already hungry and began to collect nectar from the milkweed flowers, before moving over to other nectar flowers we had planted specifically for the Monarchs. So far we have rescued, raised and released 38 Monarch eggs - and have 15 still feeding on milkweed. So more great photo ops await. Send a PM if you'd like more info on how to help the Monarchs. [font=Times New Roman]Canon 7D, 180 Macro, ISO 400, F8 at 1/640[/font] http://www.akwildlife.com
Fellow Member International League of Conservation Photographers, North American Nature Photographers, Past President of Friends of McNeil River |
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by wtracyparnell
on Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:42 pm
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Posts: 4368
Joined: 11 Jun 2012 Location: Western New York |
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by CactusD
on Wed Jul 23, 2014 4:00 pm
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Posts: 2449
Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Location: Ideally, halfway up a Greek mountain, or in the northern British landscape; otherwise, Banbury, UK |
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by Tom Whelan
on Wed Jul 23, 2014 8:09 pm
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by kostas nianiopoulos
on Wed Jul 23, 2014 11:26 pm
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by Matthew Pugh
on Thu Jul 24, 2014 9:09 am
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by Carol Clarke
on Thu Jul 24, 2014 4:07 pm
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by PaiR
on Thu Jul 24, 2014 7:48 pm
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by Gary Briney
on Thu Jul 24, 2014 9:58 pm
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