Here is something you don’t see every day: a Monarch Butterfly with a sticker on its wing.
Vacaville butterfly watcher Kathy Keatley Garvey took a picture in her backyard of a butterfly with a sticker on it. The sticker has a code and a website.
“The tagging is an attempt to track their migration,” said Art Shapiro, UC Davis Professor of Evolution and Ecology.
Right now is monarch butterfly migration season, Shapiro said. Researchers at Washington State University put stickers on thousands of monarchs. Some of those butterflies are making their way through the valley.
“These are western monarchs and we are figuring out the path they take to California to over winter,” said WSU spokesperson Linda Weiford.
WSU has been tagging monarchs for years. Professor David James and other researchers have released nearly 3,000 monarchs in Washington and Oregon this year.
The stickers do not hurt or effect the butterfly’s ability to fly, researchers said. If you do see a monarch with a sticker on it, take a picture of it and send it to monarch@wsu.edu.