Getting Started: Key Activities

Photo Galleries and Video Clips

• Teacher Guide: Explore the Monarch's Winter Habitat
• Video Visit: Pictures to Poetry (Video Clip)
• Can YOU Find the Monarch's Winter Home in Mexico?
• Slideshows: Life in the Sanctuary Region
• A Quiet Walk in the Monarch's Forest (Photos)
• Fall Arrival (by Elizabeth Howard) (Photos)
• Field Notes from Mexico by Mr. Don Davis (Photos)
• Spring Flight (by Dr. Lincoln Brower) (Photos)
• More Photos, Maps and Landscape Views (Photos)

Population Size

• Bar Graph: Monarch Population Size (Winter 1994 to present)
• Slideshow: How Many Monarchs in Mexico This Winter?
• Teacher Guide: How Many Monarchs in Mexico This Winter?
• Pie Chart: Which Sanctuaries Do the Monarchs Select?
• Pie Charts (Compare Two Seasons: Do Monarchs Select the Same Sanctuaries Each Year?
• How Many Football Fields Would This Year's Monarchs Cover?
• How Are Monarch Colonies Measured?
• How 10 Million Became 50 Million: A Story About Changing Estimates
• How Many Millions of Monarch Butterflies?
• Single Storm Kills Over 75% of Overwintering Monarchs
• Population Rebounds: Monarchs in the News
• Population Dynamics: Studying Changes in Population Size
• Counting All Butterflies: Mark, Release, Recapture Method
• Latest Population Estimate from World Wildlife Fund-Mexico: Original Report in Spanish

Climate

• Monitoring Temperatures of the Monarch Winter Habitat
• Slideshow: Temperature and Survival: A Balancing Act
• Temperature and Time of Year: How Cold in Mexico? (Graph)
• Temperature and Elevation: Nearly Two Miles High!
• An American Family Experiences Cold Nights in Angangueo
• It's March! How are Monarchs and Seasons Changing? (Graphs)
• Global Climate: Animation of Global Temperatures
• Global Climate: Mexico's Wet and Dry Seasons
• Tropical vs. Temperate: Watch the Seasons Change

Location

• Slideshow: Why is This Place So Special for Monarchs?
• Can You Find the Monarch's Winter Home in Mexico?
• The Location of the Overwintering Sites: Why is This Place So Special for Monarchs?
• Getting Ready for Spring Migration
• Exactly Where in Mexico Do the Monarchs Go for the Winter?
• Like Finding a Needle in a Haystack?
• Geography and Migration

Habitat

• Exploring the Monarch's Winter Habitat: Looking for Food, Water, Shelter, and Space

  Food

  • Slideshow: No Food for Five Months? How is it Possible?
  • Food at the Overwintering Sites?
  • Living on Lipids: Surviving the Season on Stored Energy
  • Slideshow: Who's Been Eating the Monarchs? Monarchs and their Predators in Mexico

  Water

  • Slideshow: Monarchs, Mountains and Moisture
  • Mexico's Wet and Dry Seasons: Dr. Brower’s Precipitation Graph
  • The Cloud, Mountain, Fog, Forest Connection
  • Exploring the Monarch’s Winter Habitat: Backyard Observation Reveals a Clue
  • Windshield Watch: Exploring Dew and Frost in Your Neighborhood
  • Where Do Monarchs Get Water in the Winter?
  • Water Resources for Families in the Sanctuary Area (Espanol)

  Shelter

  • The Monarch's Forest Ecosystem: The Oyamel Fir Forest
  • Observation: How is a tree-trunk like a hot water bottle?
  • Journal Page: How Does the Forest Protect Monarch Butterflies? Think by Analogy
  • How Forest as Blanket, Umbrella, and Hot Water Bottle
  • How Does the Forest Shelter the Butterflies? By Dr. Calvert
  • Scientists Learn from Butterflies: More Space is Needed
  • How Are These Monarchs Avoiding Predators?

  Space

  • Close Quarters: How Many Butterflies on a Branch?
  • How Many Paper Clips Bend a Branch the Way Monarchs Do?
  • Dr. Calvert Looks at Space from the Monarch's Point of View
  • How Much Space Does a Monarch Colony Need?
  • Seasonal History of a Colony

Adaptations

• Camouflage in the Over-wintering Colonies
• Why Are Those Butterflies Behaving so Strangely?
• Why Do Monarchs Shiver?
• Why Don?t Cold Butterflies Fall? Monarch Adaptations
• Cold-blooded Creatures: Classroom Activities
• Cold-blooded Creatures: Fact Sheet
• Temperature and Survival: Life as a Cold-blooded Creature
• Millions of Monarchs Eaten by Predators
• The Effect of Snow on Monarchs
• The Effect of Cold, Wet Weather on Monarchs
• The "Cloud Effect": Monarch Colony's Reaction to Cloud Cover
• Cascading Behavior
• Mating Before Spring Departure
• Try This! Write a Field Guide for the Monarch Overwintering Sites

Observations in the Sanctuaries: First-person Accounts

• What Do Two Pictures Tell You About Climate of the Monarch Sanctuaries in Mexico?
• Dr. Bill Cavert's Field Observations:
  • The Importance of Shelter from the Wind
  • The Importance of Water
  • Dry Conditions Force Colonies
  • Signs of Colony Break-up Signal Spring
  • Everywhere, Monarchs in Motion—Why?
  • The Wintering Season Comes to an End
  • Monarchs on the Move
  • Here Come the Monarchs!
  • A Time for Going Home by
  • Gone...
• Dr.Lincoln Brower's Field Observations:
  • Visiting the Cerro Pelon Colony(w/audio)
  • Two Weeks With the Butterflies in Mexico (w/audio)
  • Visiting the Monarch Sanctuary
• Searching for Monarchs in the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary
• Flying With the Butterflies by Carol Cullar
• Field Notes from Mexico by Don Davis (March 2006)
• Exploring the Monarch’s Winter Habitat: Backyard Observation Reveals a Clue

Conservation

• It's All About the Forest: What Story Do the Pictures Tell?
• Scientists Ready to Take Satellite Images of Sanctuaries
• Alarming Deforestation Revealed by Satellite Images
• The Story Behind the Satellite Images: How Students Helped
• Monarch Sanctuary Deforestation Maps
• Domestic Uses of Wood: Ranch Tour With Noemi's Dad
• Domestic Uses of Wood: Two Loads per Week
• Monarch Conservation in Mexico: How Kids are Helping
• Deforestation: Domestic Uses of Wood
• Deforestation: Conversion of Forests to Agriculture
• Deforestation Solutions: Michoacan Reforestation Project
• The Children's Monarch Reforestation Project
• Who Owns the Monarch Sanctuaries?
• Conservation News from Mexico
• Conservation Perspectives: A View From Mexico
• Support Monarch Butterfly Habitat Conservation in Mexico
• Create Monarch Habitat Where You Live
• Ecological Footprint: Take the Quiz!
• Why Should We Care About Monarchs? Dr. Brower Asks for Help
• Also see: Symbolic Monarch Migration and Related Activities

Ecotourism

• Ecotourism: How Many Pesos to Visit a Monarch Sanctuary?
• Ecotourism Safari: How Many Examples Can You Find?
• Visiting the Sanctuary With Professor and Grandfather Brower
• Meet Monarch Biologist Dr. Bill Calvert

Culture

• Life in the Sanctuary Region: Short Stories in English and Spanish
• Spanish Lesson with Noemi de Jesus and her Dad (Overwintering Vocabulary)
• Comparing and Contrasting Language and Culture

Assessment

• Just for Teachers: Suggestions for Assessment (Monarch Winter Season)