Butterfly Counters Miffed at S.F. Museum
Matthew B. Stannard, The San Francisco Chronicle
October 4, 2008
Liam O’Brien was sitting down for dinner Sept. 27 when he flipped on the television news to see a flock of monarch butterflies delighting the opening day crowds at the California Academy of Sciences - and just about choked on his meal. Where the happy crowds saw a colorful display of natural wonder, O’Brien saw a flock of alien invaders - just a few flaps away from the grove of eucalyptus trees where he volunteers each year to count the local population of monarchs as part of a statewide monitoring program. “To release … butterflies so close to a roost completely compromises the season,” O’Brien said. “I cannot walk into the Botanical Garden and say those are not from the back of some woman’s car.”
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December 18th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
The Xerces Thanksgiving Count data shows no monarchs have been seen at the historical cluster site (26th & Fulton) in Golden Gate Park for the past 9 consecutive years. Ditto this past Thanksgiving despite the release of 500 monarchs on Sept. 27. So the release did not actually interfere with the Thanksgiving census count.
December 28th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
The article says “nobody does it with anything else” (other than butterflies), but that’s not quite true. People release ladybugs, mantises, and other insects all the time for “natural pest control”. There are some rumblings about impact on native species of ladybugs.