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Monarch Health is a citizen science project to track the prevalence of the protozoan parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) in monarchs.

 

To test for parasites in monarchs, citizen scientists obtain wild adult butterflies and press a clear sticker against each monarchs' abdomen to collect parasite spores. Monarchs are released unharmed. Citizen scientists send samples to our lab at the University of Georgia, where we inspect samples at 60X magnification. We share all results with citizen scientists and report data in scientific articles. Visit our website for more information.

Scope & impact  

Monarch Health engages ~150 citizen scientists and 5 research investigators per year. We receive about 3,000 samples annually from across the U.S. and southern Canada. Since the project was established by Dr. Sonia Altizer in 2006, volunteers have contributed over 20,000 samples.

 

Through Monarch Health, citizen scientists advance ecological knowledge about how animal migrations influence infectious diseases. Monarch Health volunteers have helped to reveal important patterns. As reported by Sonia Altizer and her colleagues in the journal Ecology (Bartel et al. 2011), Monarch Health data showed that the long-distance journey to Mexico reduces infection prevalence among monarchs by weeding out butterflies infected with the protozoan parasite. Recently, volunteer data indicated that monarchs that skip migration to breed year-round in coastal areas experience signficantly higher risk of infection compared to migratory monarchs (Satterfield et al. 2015). These publications contribute to the rich legacy of volunteer participation in monarch research. Much of what the scientific community knows about monarch ecology and conservation is because of citizen scientists, who have collected data on monarchs for over 60 years through multiple programs.

Engaging citizen scientists to track the spread of a protozoan parasite in wild monarchs
Director: Sonia Altizer
 

About the program

Sampling wild monarchs for parasites with students from the Monarch School (Houston, TX), 2014. Photo courtesy of Russell Hubbard and the Monarch School. 

(top left) Monarch Health citizen scientists obtain adult monarchs from the wild and (middle) test for parasite infection using a sticker sample pressed against each monarch's abdomen. Sampling does not harm monarchs. (bottom) Samples are mailed to our lab and analzyed for parasites at 60X. 

 

Contact us

Dara Satterfield

 
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