https://www.monarchdefenders.org/about daily 0.75 2022-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/3c894606-1a77-4136-8e6e-72b907b32e40/IMG_5510.jpg About https://www.monarchdefenders.org/home daily 1.0 2026-03-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/4f2513ad-166c-467f-bf53-726063e37ee6/monarch+close-up.jpg Home - Monarchs are astonishing creatures with one of the most spectacular migrations on earth. Eastern monarchs travel between 1,200 and 2,800 miles from the eastern U.S. and Canada, where they breed, to the oyamel fir tree forests in Mexico’s central highlands, where they hibernate during the winter. Western monarch butterflies overwinter on the California coast. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/939a3887-c96c-49a8-b524-3162bfdc2453/pesticide+agriculture.jpeg Home - But they are heading towards extinction at an alarming rate. Eastern monarch populations have declined by over 80% and western populations have declined by over 90% due to habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change and are one of the countless other species that humanity is threatening with extinction. https://www.monarchdefenders.org/learn daily 0.75 2022-08-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/5151c794-75c2-4a01-9d9e-73be0d712a6a/Caterpillar+3.jpg Learn about the Monarchs - Monarch butterflies undergo a complete metamorphosis. There are four stages to this process: egg, larva or caterpillar, pupa, and adult. It takes about thirty days for a monarch to develop from egg to adult. A female monarch will lay a single egg at a time, but can lay hundreds of eggs in one day. She lays her eggs on the underside of a milkweed plant leaf, because milkweed is the only thing that caterpillars will eat. When the caterpillar emerges, it eats constantly, first the eggshell, then the plant. It eats so much that it grows to more than 2,000 times its mass. As noted by Anurag Agrawal Monarchs and Milkweed, if an 8-pound baby were to grow at this rate, at the end of one year it would weigh as much as 35 adult elephants! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1645713802626-LB3ZNQ2M0ULP80WLNSYA/unsplash-image-vJ2MsFmBj2E.jpg Learn about the Monarchs - After about two weeks, the caterpillar will crawl away from the milkweed, find a secure location, form a silk mat, hang upside down from the mat, and transform into a chrysalis (a protective layer enclosing the pupa). Inside the chrysalis, they disintegrate all their tissues (except for so-called imaginal discs). The imaginal discs fuel rapid cell division to form the features of an adult butterfly. This radical transformation takes about a week and half, after which an adult monarch butterfly emerges. For a great podcast on how a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis goo, listen to this Radiolab episode. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1648303185075-F0BZFU46Y20HUS5RV3HW/unsplash-image-9DHs9jgGj-g.jpg Learn about the Monarchs - Adult monarchs do not eat milkweed, but feed instead on nectar from certain flowering plants. The milkweed it ate as a caterpillar, however, provides it protection. Milkweed is poisonous to many creatures, and after the caterpillars eat it, they—and the adult butterflies—retain the toxins, which would sicken would-be predators. The bright orange of the monarchs wings acts as a warning to predators to stay away! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/5913b084-490c-4cda-80d4-bde78212249c/Monarch+migration+map.jpg Learn about the Monarchs https://www.monarchdefenders.org/contact daily 0.75 2022-04-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/758473da-cb84-4f59-8f53-68b5b5e2037a/Butterfly+costume+photo.jpeg Contact Us - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.monarchdefenders.org/defenders daily 0.75 2024-09-30 https://www.monarchdefenders.org/take-action daily 0.75 2022-09-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1645539555071-A6QBWOUYK1ECFI8AGWQH/2.jpg Take Action https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/719dabc3-361b-47c6-ae9d-33e91808cc13/monarch+garden.jpg Take Action https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1648833178828-Z9KYYCNY3C5T2TQYJD0T/climate+protest.jpeg Take Action https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/cedf4a4b-cb28-4896-bb4f-4a9e78a7fbc5/Butterfly+habitat.jpg Take Action https://www.monarchdefenders.org/other-threats daily 0.75 2022-05-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/c0099e3d-c0b4-4322-9a33-e40d7a3f90e2/climate+protest.jpeg Other Threats Fridays for Future climate strike; Bonn, Germany; March 2019 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/939a3887-c96c-49a8-b524-3162bfdc2453/pesticide+agriculture.jpeg Other Threats Vast fields of monoculture crops https://www.monarchdefenders.org/microhabitats daily 0.75 2022-09-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1646668313923-DHHXWQ44L1YUG1388E3B/Screen%252BShot%252B2022-03-07%252Bat%252B10.50.03%252BAM.jpg How to Make a Garden https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1646685957424-GROPZCSYD057OJ9NFSFH/Screen+Shot+2022-03-07+at+3.45.33+PM.png How to Make a Garden https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1646686357061-5Y3Q49Q7PZMT2VVAW4RY/Screen+Shot+2022-03-07+at+3.51.57+PM.png How to Make a Garden https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1646686859840-XLBR4SK0U7XOGNY10FIZ/Screen%2BShot%2B2022-03-07%2Bat%2B3.57.10%2BPM.jpg How to Make a Garden https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1646687529785-2ECU6A6SBEL6M4ADP49G/Screen%2BShot%2B2022-03-07%2Bat%2B4.10.31%2BPM.jpg How to Make a Garden https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/1660309387007-C0SQ1LJZSTC22J52R186/Hatching+from+egg+1.jpg How to Make a Garden https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/28971279-c4b9-486a-9e85-a25407c657c8/Lawn.jpeg How to Make a Garden - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.monarchdefenders.org/political-actions daily 0.75 2022-05-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/4200aa81-3899-4913-9495-af2964babeb8/2.jpg Political Actions - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62116d0b4ed8f5194377edfb/d7919672-3bd1-4a55-ae10-09dfe52dbccc/butterfly+capitol+collage.jpg Political Actions - Writing policymakers To further help the monarchs, write your representatives and senators to support the legislation and programs discussed above. You can look up the contact information for your representative here and for your senators here. You can also write to the relevant state and federal agencies discussed above. Try recruiting other students and members of your community to write as a group with a postcard writing party! Provide information on the legislation, blank postcards (such as these), and a sample of what to write. Here is a sample letter to an elected official. Dear Representative/Senator XXX, I am writing to urge you to support the Monarch Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat Act, or MONARCH Act, of 2021. Western Monarch butterfly populations have declined by over 90% and are in critical need of protection. This act would provide needed support for their conservation. Please help pass this bill—and expand it to include the eastern monarchs—in order to save these magnificent creatures. Thank you. 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