The goal of the garden is to protect monarch caterpillars as they munch on milkweed, bulk up, undergo metamorphosis, and flutter away as beautiful black and orange butterflies. This task has been handled primarily by Merle with incredible assistance from our Junior Keepers; dedicated volunteers who help Merle document the comings and goings from the garden. Looking at the records kept by Merle and the Junior Keepers, it’s abundantly clear that our garden monarchs are achieving survival rates far beyond what is typical in the wild. We’re still refining our techniques and developing our methods but things are off to a great start.

As the butterflies of the spring migration moved northward, our garden had begun to quiet down. We weren’t expecting any more caterpillars this season and each day there seem to be fewer and fewer adult butterflies flitting through the trees as they continue their long migration. The plan for this hiatus was to keep the garden healthy and developing while we waited for the monarchs to come back through on their return trip in the fall. Then the Sonoma County Fair happened.

This year, the Sonoma County Fair featured a beautiful exhibit called Butterfly Adventures. Butterfly Adventures invited visitors to enter a world of butterflies in which they could interact with and explore these wonderful creatures. The people behind Butterfly Adventures did such a great job taking care of their exhibit butterflies that their delicate monarchs began to lay eggs. The fairground population boomed and quickly chewed through their supply of milkweed. Approaching starvation and the impending death of nearly 1,000 little green caterpillars, Butterfly Adventures reached out to Merle and Safari West and we rushed to provide some much-needed sustenance for their fledgling brood.

Now that the fair has come to a close, most those little caterpillars have been relocated to the butterfly garden at Safari West where they will be monitored and supported by our dedicated staff as they make their metamorphic transition to fluttering adulthood. Several of them are on display daily at the Savannah Café.

It’s late enough in the year now that as these little beauties emerge, they’ll likely head South and West rather than north, fluttering steadily toward Santa Cruz, Pacific Grove, or Pismo Beach. There they will meet up with tens of thousands of their fellow migrants and wait out the winter in the trees of the temperate coasts. Come spring, they’ll head north again and Safari West will be visited by the children and grandchildren of this current round of butterflies as they continue their ancestral migratory adventure.

The post Monarchs on the Move appeared first on Safari West.

Monarch butterflies are native to Sonoma County. They pass through our backyards twice a year, once in the spring as they travel north toward the higher latitudes of the United States and into southern Canada, and again in the fall as they head south to their overwintering grounds in the pine and eucalyptus groves surrounding Monterey Bay. This annual migration is completed not by individual butterflies but by several generations throughout the year. This means that the monarchs arriving in Sonoma County in early spring will lay eggs as they pass through. The caterpillars born here will enjoy a brief infancy with us before maturing into butterflies themselves and continuing north. The butterflies that return here later in the year will be the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of those we see each spring.

Merle Reuser, monarch aficionado and long-time friend of Safari West, as well as our resident landscaping genius, Sergio Ramirez, kicked off our monarch mission. For several weeks the two men could be found hard at work on the hillside behind our main office, planting native milkweed to serve as our butterfly nursery. Monarchs lay their eggs exclusively on milkweed, an unassuming little plant that we humans hold in pretty low regard, and their caterpillar babies grow up munching on it. It is suspected that a key factor in the decline of the monarchs has been the steady disappearance of this critical plant; the victim of our heavy use of industrial herbicides and aggressively weeded from our yards and gardens. Butterflies that would otherwise have flown right through Safari West now regularly land and lay eggs on our clusters of healthy milkweed.

It’s important to note that there are many different species of milkweed and if you’re going to undertake some milkweed planting of your own, it’s important to pick a species native to your area and that will actually be utilized by the butterflies. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Petaluma is a great resource for this.

As our milkweed plants were taking root and growing, our Junior Keeper program joined in on the action. These dedicated kids, guided and supported by Corrine Freitas, Ben Crabb, and Kait Nevers went to work in the butterfly garden. Over the course of several weeks, they created a lush landscape of flowers in and among the sprouting milkweed. They planted lavender and sage, rosemary and pipevine, wildflowers of varied color and size. These flowers and the nectar they produce provide a food source for adult butterflies and an additional invitation to stop by our garden. With established food supplies for monarchs in every stage of life, the monarch team moved on to the next phase; building butterfly boxes.

Monarch butterflies and their caterpillars have numerous predators, including ants, spiders, and birds. Lowell and Ryan of the butterfly team constructed wooden-framed screened-in enclosures that could be nestled securely over patches of milkweed, protecting the growing caterpillars within. On a sunny day in early spring, couch sized boxes composed of wooden frames and window screens began arriving on property. As soon as the boxes were in place, the Junior Keepers went back to work, scouring the milkweed plants for little quarter-inch-long, black, white, and green striped caterpillars. Once located, positively identified, and documented, the larvae were relocated to the boxes where they lived free from predation, feasting on milkweed and growing.

As the collected caterpillars grew, the Junior Keepers found a way to make use of old asparagus boxes and half-and-half containers from the Savana Cafe. The monarch crew converted them into butterfly houses; simple shelters from the weather and the wind. Left to their own devices, butterflies typically roost high in the trees at night, counting on the cover of leaves to protect them from the elements. Since any butterfly emerging from a cocoon at Safari West would be restricted to a box at first, it is necessary to provide shelter for the young adults until they can be documented and released.

When monarch butterflies emerge from their cocoons, they rest for an hour or more while their wings unfurl and dry. Once they are ready to take flight it is critical to release them from the butterfly enclosures or risk the determined insects damaging their wings against the screen. Because of this need for regular observation, Merle, Sergio, and the Junior Keepers kept up a steady watch. Each morning Sergio could be found checking the enclosures for adult butterflies and releasing those that were ready to go. Merle made his rounds at noontime and then again around six pm. The Junior Keepers filled in at other times throughout the days and weeks of this project.

On June 9th, Merle released the last three adults from this crop. Of 86 total caterpillars collected and transferred to the enclosures, 42 made it through pupation and were released as adults. A success rate of nearly 50% is incredible for this species (in comparison, a 10% survival rate is typical in the wild). Of the 42 adults we documented, roughly half were female, each one of them carrying some 300 eggs to be deposited along their flight path. At this point, most of the adults released here are likely in Nevada or Idaho, continuing the long journey north. This August, as the butterflies return, we’ll begin scouting our milkweed for eggs and larvae again. The butterfly enclosures will be repopulated with feasting caterpillars and glossy green chrysalids. Utilizing what we’ve learned from this first go-round, Merle expects a success rate closer to 75% with this next breeding cycle. The butterflies resulting from that generation will leave Safari West and head south where they and thousands of others will spend the winter in the eucalyptus groves of Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove.

Not long ago, monarchs could be found in the millions throughout California. Though this important pollinator has declined in number throughout the country, our garden, along with many others, is helping these amazing creatures begin to recover. Safari West invites you to join us in this project. Come visit our garden, check out the Safari West Wildlife Foundation’s Junior Keeper program at www.safariwestwildlifefoundation.org, and think about maybe starting a garden of your own.

The post Butterflies in Bloom appeared first on Safari West.

It has become undeniably apparent that butterfly populations are plummeting. The drop has been so precipitous and so quick that the charismatic insect hasn’t yet been granted endangered species status. Both the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the US Fish & Wildlife Service are scrambling to review the data related to monarch population collapse. The catastrophic decline in butterfly numbers has been severe enough, however, to warrant immediate conservation action even as those agencies work through the data. In June 2014, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum that established a Pollinator Health Task Force. This was partly in response to the epidemic of colony collapse disorder decimating honey bee populations, but the memorandum also focused on butterflies as another important pollinator. The memorandum states that “[t]he number of migrating Monarch butterflies sank to the lowest recorded population level in 2013–14, and there is an imminent risk of failed migration.”

This concern over pollinator decline also leads to the filing of a petition with the US Department of the Interior to have the monarch declared an endangered species. If granted, the monarch would obtain further legal protections under the Endangered Species Act. Unsurprisingly, this petition was sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity, based in Oakland, California. What is more interesting is that it was co-sponsored by the Center for Food Safety, an agency concerned with the sustainability of our farming practices. The plight of the monarch isn’t simply a matter of a pretty insect at risk; their decline has ramifications that impact our entire agricultural industry.

The increased attention being paid to endangered wildlife and ecosystems originating from commercial and industrial interests is a signal. It demonstrates that we as a species are beginning to understand two key points: one, that our habits and attitudes have major effects on the life forms we share the planet with and two, that the struggles of these life forms impact us in turn.

Monarch butterflies are suffering from a barrage of human-sourced issues. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed, a weed that is targeted by agricultural herbicides. The poisons we use to benefit our crops kill not only the nursery plant of the monarch but huge swaths of wildflowers that the butterflies depend on for food as well. The monarchs lay on milkweed because their larval young will feed on it, ingesting toxins as they go. These toxins, while harmless to the caterpillar, make it distasteful and poisonous to potential predators. Unfortunately, this clever adaptation, quite effective against native predators, has proven to be ineffective against at least two invasive species; the Asian lady beetle and the Chinese mantis. Other invasives, plants this time, further complicate the problem. Monarchs on the quest for a nesting site, often confuse black swallow-wort and pale swallow-wort for their preferred milkweed. The invasive European plants are poisonous to monarchs and the caterpillars unfortunate enough to be born on them invariably die.

As winter approaches and the monarchs begin their flight south, the situation worsens. All of their issues with finding food and avoiding predators are compounded by the exertion required to cross the many hundreds or thousands of miles between their northern range and their southern range. Monarchs are unwilling or unable to cross the Gulf of Mexico and so must make the long trip around before heading to the Sierra Madres. The result of these many factors has led to a 50% decline in the butterfly population west of the Rockies since 1997 (these are the butterflies headed to the California coasts) and a 90% decline in the population east of the Rockies since 1995 (this is the population that winds up in Mexico). Truly, the situation looks grim.

Typically, this is where the discussion ends. We conclude with the understanding that human beings are the apocalypse, that our agriculture, our industry, and our rampant consumption serve to push our neighboring wildlife inexorably toward the cliff of extinction. Quite often an article like this ends by bemoaning our cataclysmic ways and putting forth a call to action, a plea to open our eyes and take a hard look at what we’re doing and how to change. These are critically necessary conversations that must be had. Certain aspects of human industry and development are having dramatic effects on the world at large, but in this edition of Conservation Corner, we want to use the situation to illustrate another point entirely.

Throughout the long history of life on this planet, the evolution of species has been driven by the process of natural selection. On a constantly changing globe, every species is exposed to changing situations; glaciers form and melt, volcanos erupt, the climate grows a few degrees cooler, then warms back up again. The animals that can survive these changes breed and subtly shift the nature of their species one way or another. The generation descending from the last is slightly modified and the modifications that yield the best results typically persist. It’s a slow moving and granular process occurring over millions of years and so we don’t expect to see much evidence of it over the limited span of time in which we humans have been around to influence it.

Humanity now applies seemingly unprecedented pressures on the environment. Utilizing dams and pipelines, we have diverted the flow of rivers the world over. A process which would have taken centuries through the slow processes of sedimentation and erosion can now take place in a geological blink of the eye. Likewise, we are tapping oil reserves and releasing sequestered carbon at a pace many thousands of times faster than the rate by which it was initially pulled from the sky. These changes and others, taking place over a compressed period of time constitute daunting challenges to many species and have undoubtedly led to extinctions. The situation is growing increasingly dire, but what’s important to bear in mind is this; the flora and fauna of this planet have always had to surmount obstacles to survive. What we humans have brought to bear may be impressive, but it is not unprecedented. Humanity and the pressures we bring with us are merely the latest variation on the theme of dynamic change. A theme which has driven natural selection since the first single-celled organism appeared in the primordial sea.

This point is not made to absolve humanity of our responsibilities but rather to highlight the incredible resilience of life on this planet. As Dr. Ian Malcolm proclaimed in the oft under-rated Jurassic Park, “Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but… life finds a way.” To take it back to the monarchs, as the milkweed declines, they’re laying eggs on the swallow-worts. The swallow-worts are killing them so that experiment has failed but the point is that they’re adapting to changed circumstances rather than giving up en masse and falling down dead.

A more interesting and potentially more successful adaptive behavior has recently become apparent. While the human-caused decline in milkweed and the invasive predators we’ve unwittingly introduced have created potentially insurmountable problems for the monarchs, our dependence on oil has surprisingly, offered them an opportunity.

The southbound monarchs fly around the Gulf of Mexico rather than over it; a journey that exposes them to increased risks and requires far more energy. Since we have peppered the gulf with oil rigs, some monarchs have begun to use the industrial platforms as stopover points. With the sudden appearance of artificial rest stops, a journey across the gulf becomes difficult rather than impossible. We’ve unwittingly created problems, but we’ve also unwittingly created opportunities and the monarch butterfly is not alone in taking advantage.

The novel migratory path of monarchs is just one example of the innumerable species that have found ways to adapt to human wrought change. For decades, if not centuries, we have endeavored to bring about the extinction of a whole host of parasitic and infectious species. We may crow about the annihilation of smallpox, but what about the flu, or the common cold, or salmonella? Every time we use our vaunted human intellect and technological advantage to attack these species, they rally, surviving not just in distant isolated crevices of the world, but in our very bodies. Likewise, few stop to consider the ecological value of rats, mice, or roaches because the possibility of their extinction is laughable. We have taken every possible measure to destroy or drive off these incredibly resilient species, but have never come close to achieving that goal.

Perhaps the most surprising example of animal adaptation to human advancement to appear in the last few years is that of the coyote. Coyotes have long proven resilient in the face of human antagonism, not only surviving in rural areas where they are almost universally classified as pests, but readily colonizing our suburban neighborhoods as well. These creatures have proven so malleable in behavior, so adaptable to changing conditions that recently it’s been discovered that coyotes have colonized metropolitan Chicago. There in the heart of the third most populous city in the nation, as many as 2,000 coyotes are living fairly comfortable lives right under our noses. They have transitioned from a life in daylight to a largely nocturnal lifestyle. An animal adapted to life in the forests and plains is now learning to follow traffic patterns and avoid vehicles. They’ve become so adept at living without conflict among millions of human neighbors that one coyote pair managed to raise a litter of pups in the parking lot of Soldier Field Stadium.

We live in an era in which the evidence of human progress and habitation can be found on every continent, in every ecosystem, and even orbiting the planet. Some scientists are arguing to rename this geological epoch the Anthropocene to reflect the possibility that we’ve entered the age of man. Our influence on this globe is immense and we as a species must be aware of what we do and how we go about doing it. We should care about the organisms that are declining in the face of our advancement and for the large part, we do. We should take measures to mitigate our impact on the world at large, to learn to live in balance with our neighbors. As we take on these noble goals, however, it is important not to exaggerate our power. We are not the lords of this planet, we are merely a very large and influential population on it.

Early life enjoyed a methane rich atmosphere and died off in droves when photosynthetic cyanobacteria flooded the skies with toxic oxygen. Life adapted to the new order and now most organisms on this planet actually require oxygen to survive. When the Earth cooled and sheets of ice covered nearly the entire globe, many species died out, but life carried on, adapting, changing, and thriving in a frozen world. When a massive meteor struck the planet, it brought about the end of the dinosaurs, and as they died, other creatures hunkered down and survived. Now the mammalian descendants of that small shrew-like species dominate the globe. No matter what force for change rolls across this dynamic planet of ours, life finds a way to adapt to it. In the face of a changing world, life will continue to modify and thrive. Whether we humans are the agents of change or not is largely irrelevant, life will find a way.

The post Conservation Corner: Life Finds a Way appeared first on Safari West.

Conservation makes up a massive part of what we do here at Safari West and every single one of our departments is involved in it in one way or another. Whether it’s the keeper department’s relentless work to keep a healthy and diverse gene pool for our endangered species, or the restaurant staff’s efforts to recycle everything from food containers to the leftover food itself (Humans may not eat orange peels but lots of animals do!), or our guide staff’s conservation based Safari Tours, we find ourselves working on conservation every day.

One of our most recent conservation projects involves the monarch butterfly, a species many of us grew up seeing in our schoolyards and parks. Monarch populations west of the Rocky Mountains have declined by over 50% in the last twenty years almost unnoticed. Populations east of the Rockies have crashed even harder and are currently only 10% of what they once were.

As humans, many of us are aware of the valuable pollinating service honeybees provide and are also aware that honeybees themselves are facing an epidemic of colony collapse. With the decrease in one important pollinator, it is even more critical that we do what we can to preserve the monarchs, not just for their own good but ours as well.

With that in mind, we’ve begun an ambitious planting project as Safari West. As it turns out, a huge reason for the decline in monarchs is the 33% reduction in their summer breeding habitat. Monarchs lay exclusively on milkweed, a plant most of us consider being a weed. Over the years, milkweed has been largely exterminated by the overuse of certain herbicides, both agriculturally and domestically. Safari West hopes to be a small part in reversing this trend. We are in the early stages of establishing a butterfly garden on the hill behind the main office. We’ve been putting in native milkweed for the fluttering insects to lay eggs on and planting wildflowers to be a food source for the breeding adults.

Our Junior Keeper program has recently taken up the cause and is installing additional plantings all around our 400-acre property. Hopefully, in the near future, we’ll find our views of strolling giraffes more regularly interrupted by the looping swoops of resurgent monarch butterflies.

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