Fred Urquhart
| Frederick Albert "Fred" Urquhart | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 13, 1911 Toronto |
| Died | November 3, 2002 (aged 90) |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Fields | Zoologist |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto |
| Known for | Research on monarch butterflies |
| Notable awards | Order of Canada |
| Spouse | Norah Roden Patterson Urquhart |
| Norah Roden Urquhart | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Norah Roden Patterson June 23, 1918 |
| Died | March 13, 2009 (aged 90) Pickering, Ontario |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Zoologist |
| Known for | Research on monarch butterflies |
| Spouse(s) | Frederick Albert Urquhart |
| Awards | Order of Canada |
Frederick Albert "Fred" Urquhart C.M. (December 13, 1911 – November 3, 2002) was a Canadian zoologist who studied the migration of monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus L. Together with his wife, Norah Roden Urquhart (June 23, 1918 – March 13, 2009), he identified their migration routes, discovered that the migration spans multiple generations of butterflies, and after many years of searching found, along with Catalina Trails and Ken Brugger, where the butterflies spend their winter, far away from their summer residence areas in Canada and the United States.
Urquhart's research on the route and destination of the insects started in 1937 and lasted for 38 years. He and Norah tracked the trails of the butterflies by tagging the wings of thousands of individual butterflies. They founded the first Insect Migration Association, today known as Monarch Watch, and recruited hundreds of volunteers - "citizen scientists" who helped in their research by tagging butterflies and reporting findings and sightings. The Urquharts raised thousands of monarchs at their home in Scarborough, Ontario, as well as using the facilities of the University of Toronto to analyze their findings and do research.
They identified several distinct migration routes, but were baffled why the trail seemed to disappear in Texas in the late fall, only to reappear in the spring. They sought help in Mexico and recruited a pair of naturalists to search for the butterflies. On January 9, 1975, Kenneth C. Brugger and his wife Catalina Trail (then known as Cathy Aguado) finally located the first known wintering refuge on a mountaintop in Michoacán, Mexico, more than 4,000 kilometers from the starting point of their migration. In 1976 the Urquharts traveled to Mexico to view the long-sought wintering site for themselves. The discovery was published in National Geographic magazine in August 1976; the article was titled "Discovered: The monarch's Mexican haven" and featured a cover photograph of Trail covered with butterflies. A dozen such sites are now known in Mexico; they are protected as ecological preserves by the Mexican government. The area is now a World Heritage Site known as the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. Current conservation efforts are aimed at protecting monarchs in their breeding areas in the US and Canada.
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