Montreal conservationists are working to save the endangered monarch butterfly from extinction

At home on Montreal's South Shore, Roger Giraldo attends his kindergarten.

He opens the door and gently lifts the jug filled with water. A cluster of milky leaves protrudes from a hole in the metal lid.

“These are my chicks,” he said, pointing to the black, yellow, and white striped caterpillars clinging to the leaves.

This is about halfway through a caterpillar's metamorphosis. From egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, they reach their final form: monarch butterflies.

But if it weren't for him, the 100 or so worms in Giraldo's nursery wouldn't be here.

He forages and stores the eggs until they are harvested for landscaping on highway or strip mall lots.

“People always ask me, what's the use of a butterfly? And I always give it back to them, what's good for humanity? We destroy everything,” he says.

“I'm trying to help people who don't have a chance to survive.”

Monarch butterflies are getting harder and harder to survive.

According to scientists, the number of butterflies has decreased by 80 percent since the 1980s.

Monitoring monarch population declines

At the Montreal Botanical Garden, Alessandro Dieni kneels over an imported Asclepias curassavica, or tropical milkweed.

“(Monarchs) come from Mexico just to feed and complete their life cycle — and they can only do that in the presence of milkweed,” said the Botanic Garden's Monarch Mission coordinator.

“It's the only plant that caterpillars feed on.”

This is also the place where butterflies lay their eggs.

This week, hobbyists and experts from North and South America are participating in the International Monarch Observation Blitz.

After spotting milkweed, eggs or any type of butterfly, participants enter their observations online.

“The purpose of this blitz is to gather a better picture, a better picture of what's going on in Canada,” Dieny said.

What is happening is not good news. The reasons for the decline are not easy to pinpoint, but habitat loss in Canada is partly to blame: the prized milkweed plant.

Monarch Field in Montreal

You don't have to go far to find endangered monarch habitat.

On the west side of Montreal, near Trudeau International Airport, many people call it Montreal Technopark, but the 200 hectares of forests and fields have no official name.

“We've got it all here. We've got wetlands, we've got mixed hardwood forest, we've got swamp forest, and we've got great open space for all kinds of species to hunt and feed on here, including the monarch butterfly,” says Catherine Collin. . , an avid birder and member of TechnoParc Oiseaux, a conservation group.

Near the forest and in the fields there are thousands and thousands of milkweed plants, a haven for monarchs that come in summer.

Much of the land is owned by the federal government, but is leased to the administration that runs the airport, Aéroport de Montréal (ADM).

This is where they hope to master.

“There are actually talks going on with a company that wants to build on the northern sector of the airport site,” ADM spokeswoman Anne-Sophie Hamel told Radio-Canada.

For members of TechnoParc Oiseaux, they cannot understand why there is no will to protect butterflies.

“I'm not arguing that the loss of habitat in Montreal is as important as the loss of habitat in their place of migration in Mexico,” Collin said.

“But it's still a big threat because the loss of urban habitat that we're seeing, if we destroy the milkweed, the monarchs have nowhere to come to breed and start their trajectory again. So, yes, it is important. danger.”