Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory tracks migration journey of monarchs

Jennifer Tremeer is "passionate" about monarch butterflies.

With a wildlife collector's permit from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Tremeer has raised approximately three cages worth of monarchs herself this summer.

"I found them outside in the wild, I've been feeding them lots of milk weed, cleaning up a lot of poop from these caterpillars cause they do poop a lot," she said.  

Tremeer is the education and interpretive services coordinator at the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory. On the weekend, the conservatory held its 18th annual tag and release event of monarch butterflies. The public was invited to help tag the monarch butterflies, then watch them be released.

Tremeer said it takes approximately eight to 10 weeks for the butterflies to make their way to Mexico. 

Once they're there, people who see them will report their tag number to Monarch Watch and researchers from the University of Kansas will then collect the data based on the stickers and use the information for conservation. 

"They are an endangered species so they do need to be protected," Tremeer said.

"They're also important pollinators and pollinators are at risk." 

The monarchs will sleep in Mexico during the winter time and then migrate to Texas to mate and lay their eggs.

Then it's "a relay race to make it back here," Tremeer said. 

"It ends up being the great grandchildren, sometimes the great great grandchildren that actually returns to our backyard next year."