How many tags are used/recovered each year?

[allaflutter}i{]

Does anyone have an idea what the average number of tags used and then the percentage recovered is by Monarch Watch each year? It doesn't have to be exact and the recoveries can include tags from previous years. This question comes up nearly each time I do a program on the Monarch migration and I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thanks.

[Jim]

In general terms, approximately 100,000 monarchs are tagged each year and the number of recoveries reported each year ranges from 1000-3000.

Over the five (5) monarch tagging seasons of 2001-2005 (Fall 2001-Spring 2006), 7697 recoveries of monarchs tagged during those seasons were reported to us. If we assume that 500,000 monarchs were tagged in that period, then the recovery rate would be 7697/500000 = 0.015394 or approximately 1.5%

If we include recovery reports after the Spring of 2006 (of those tagged during that same 5-season period) the recovery rate would be a bit higher, in the range of 1.5-2.0%.

We will have a more accurate number once we whip our databases into shape, but that is going to take money we just don't have right now so we can't give an estimate for when this might be completed.

Hope this helps!

[allaflutter}i{]

Thanks, Jim. It does indeed help. I wasn't too far off base with my numbers but I feel better having a more firm answer to give.

As always, keep up your good work.