{"id":32693,"date":"2023-10-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=32693"},"modified":"2023-10-27T06:41:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T06:41:11","slug":"soldiers-biologists-play-tag-cavazos-aim-team-tags-10911-monarchs-since-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=32693","title":{"rendered":"Soldiers, biologists play tag: Cavazos AIM team tags 10,911 monarchs since 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Mack Fitzgibbon captures the first monarch during the monarch tagging event as Chelsea Plimpton, lead pollinator biologist for the Fort Cavazos AIM program, helps to remove it from the mesh net, Oct. 14, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Christine Luciano, Fort Cavazos DPW Environmental)
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FORT CAVAZOS, Texas \u2014<\/strong> In a training area here covered in deep purple blooms of liatris, orange-vested volunteers were spotted with their mesh nets on the search for monarch butterflies. Within minutes of the event kick off, Mack Fitzgibbon spotted the orange and black butterfly fluttering nearby and used the up and over technique to capture the first monarch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just fun to get out here and be together as a family,\u201d Fitzgibbon said. \u201cWe enjoy being out in nature, but it is fun to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chelsea Plimpton, lead pollinator biologist for the Fort Cavazos Adaptive and Integrative Management program, hosted the third annual monarch tagging event to give the community a unique opportunity to contribute to scientific research as citizen scientists. Twenty-four Soldiers, civilians and their families volunteered Oct. 14. The volunteers were dispersed into groups and challenged to see which group could tag the most monarchs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTagging provides an opportunity for people of all ages to learn about the monarch butterfly and develop a personal connection with this iconic species,\u201d Plimpton said. \u201cWe appreciate our volunteers doing their part to help pollinators, educate themselves and spread that knowledge to others in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzgibbon was joined by his grandsons and his wife Mary, who attended last year\u2019s monarch tagging event. The duo also participated in Fort Cavazos\u2019 annual Christmas Bird Count, leveraging citizen science opportunities and the benefits of the outdoors.<\/p>\n

\u201cMother Nature is good for healing and stress relief, because you\u2019re not going to control everything,\u201d Mary said. \u201cMother nature is a part of our resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Chelsea Plimpton, lead pollinator biologist for the Fort Cavazos Adaptive and Integrative Management program, places a tag on the hind wing of a female monarch, Oct. 14, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Christine Luciano, Fort Cavazos DPW Environmental)
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Plimpton helped to remove the monarch from the mesh net. Fitzgibbon observed the thicker wing veins and lack of black spots on its lower wings, and identified the butterfly as a female. After documenting the tag code, tag date, gender and geographic location, a tiny sticker with tag code AHNE 450 was gently placed onto the monarch\u2019s hind wing. Fitzgibbon then released the monarch to continue its journey south to Mexico.<\/p>\n

Each sticker has an alpha-numeric code that is unique to that individual monarch. The AIM Team purchases a tagging kit that includes stickers provided by Monarch Watch, a non-profit education, conservation and research program based at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. The citizen science program enlists the help from a network of volunteers from across North America.<\/p>\n

U.S. Army Garrison-Fort Cavazos Command Sgt. Maj. Calvin Hall joined volunteers for a second year. He encouraged others to come out and connect with their community and environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngaging our youth, Soldiers and their families to lead as good stewards of the environment is priceless,\u201d Hall said. \u201cThese meaningful experiences make an impact not only at Cavazos but in the region, and shows how we as a community are championing citizen science opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the fall migration, Plimpton will submit the data to Monarch Watch so that the non-profit can reference back to the information if a tagged monarch is found in Mexico.<\/p>\n

If individuals find a monarch later, dead or alive somewhere along its journey, they can submit the alphanumeric code to Monarch Watch\u2019s website, the organization that distributes the tags to volunteers across the country. By comparing the location where the butterflies were tagged to the places they were found, their migration patterns can be studied.<\/p>\n

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\n 2nd Lt. Callum Butler, Charlie Battery, 6th Battalion, 56th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, treks through a field of curly-top gumweed Oct. 14 in search of monarchs. (U.S. Army photo by Christine Luciano, Fort Cavazos DPW Environmental)
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Plimpton encouraged others to do their part to support the monarch population by providing nectar rich plants like maximillian sunflower, cowpen daisy, curly-top gumweed and liatris, and native milkweed host plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrdering a tagging kit from Monarch Watch is one aspect to monitor conservation,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can also create your own pollinator garden from pots on a terrace apartment to a monarch waystation at home or at work. If everyone does their part, it all adds up in an effort for monarch conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AIM Team has captured, tagged and released 350 monarchs this season and will continue their efforts until mid-November. Since inception of the tagging program in 2017, the team has captured, tagged and released 10,911 monarchs.<\/p>\n

To learn more about citizen science opportunities at Fort Cavazos, like and follow\u00a0Facebook.com\/Fort.Cavazos.AIM.Team<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mack Fitzgibbon captures the first monarch during the monarch tagging event as Chelsea Plimpton, lead pollinator biologist for the Fort Cavazos AIM program, helps to remove it from the mesh net, Oct. 14, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Christine Luciano, Fort Cavazos DPW Environmental) (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL FORT CAVAZOS, Texas \u2014 In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32695,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32698,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32693\/revisions\/32698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}