Free, fun, citizen science for all ages! The 2025 monarch tagging is Tuesday, August 19-August 22 from 10 am - 3 pm. Follow the signs outside the visitor center directing participants down deck stairs to the information table.
Here is what you do. Drop in and borrow butterfly nets. Search for monarch butterflies on the prairie. Capture them in your net and bring them back to the visitor center. PWLC staff will tag them, show you how to identify males from females, and record data. Then you can take them back outside to release them to continue their journey to Mexico!
If your butterfly is recaptured elsewhere along its migratory route, the PWLC will be notified and will let you know where and when it was found, by whom, and how many miles it traveled.
People have tagged over 5,000 monarchs here in the last 24 years. Over 61 PWLC tags have been recovered.
The PWLC provides butterfly nets, tags, and prairie habitat rich with native blooming prairie flowers, important nectar sources for migrating adult monarchs.
The peak tagging period usually takes place during the last two weeks of August and gradually tapers off from there.
Tagging monarch butterflies is important because the population is experiencing a significant, long-term decline in numbers. It helps experts determine trends over time and recommend strategies for conservation.
Catching and tagging monarchs is weather-dependent. Dry weather is required. Tagging is cancelled in wet weather.
The PWLC partners with Monarch Watch through the University of Kansas to make monarch tagging possible and to contribute real data to the conservation of this declining species. For more info, visit their web site.
Photo of an USFWS employee tagging a monarch with youth: Elizabeth Anderson
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