A Remarkable Recovery

Thank you to everyone who’s been participating in our tagging program this year! This program relies on the participation of many people to tag monarchs and send their data to us, helping us study the monarch fall migration. One of our goals for this tagging season was to increase the number of “domestic” tag recoveries. “Domestic” recoveries are tagged monarchs that are observed during the fall migration in the United States, Canada, and northern Mexico. Following each migration season, we post tag recoveries on our website, and ahead of recoveries being posted next year, we want to share a story about one of these “domestic” tag recoveries. The monarch that was observed made quite the journey.

One Monarch’s Migration

On October 15, 2025, someone reported a tagged monarch south of Perryton, Texas, a female with the tag code ALNT377. After looking through our records and contacting the tagger, we discovered that this monarch had been tagged in Biddeford, Maine, on August 28. Plotting these two locations on a map (below), we can estimate that this monarch traveled close to 1,700 miles in about six weeks. We won’t ever know exactly what this butterfly’s route was, but to see the distance between Biddeford and Perryton on a map really puts into perspective how far these insects can travel during the migration.

When spotted in Texas, this butterfly was roosting with several others in a tree (see images below). Who knows where she is now, but hopefully she’ll make it to Mexico’s overwintering grounds. This story is a reminder of the monarchs’ incredibly long journey.

We have an important role to play if monarchs are going to continue their spectacular migration. This butterfly wouldn’t have made it to Texas without nectar plants to fuel her flight, and she wouldn’t have become a butterfly without milkweed, the host plant on which female monarchs lay their eggs and monarch caterpillars exclusively feed. For the migration to continue, we need to keep planting milkweed and nectar plants so monarchs have resources to support their life cycle and migration.

How the Tagging Program Works

Monarch Watch’s tagging program is a mark-and-recapture program. Monarch butterflies are tagged with a weatherproof sticker that has a unique letter and number code, and the location, date, and sex of the butterfly is recorded. Tagged monarchs are reported all along their migration route and recovered every year from the overwintering grounds in central Mexico, providing us important data about the monarch migration. This data has revealed new information about the timing and pace of the migration, where migrating monarchs come from, how weather can affect the migration, and more.

Once all the data has been verified and processed, we’ll post domestic tag recoveries from Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico around March 2026 and recoveries from the overwintering sites in central Mexico around April/May of 2026.

If you haven’t submitted your tagging data yet, go to our Tagging Program page and follow the instructions under the “Submitting Your Tagging Data” section to share your tagging data with us. Additionally, if you have any “domestic” recoveries of tagged monarchs this season and haven’t reported them yet, use our online form to report your recovery – and if you have any photos to go along with your observation, we’d love to see them in the report as well!