Eastern North American migratory monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) have faced sharp declines over the past two decades. Captive rearing of monarch butterflies is a popular and widely used approach for both public education and conservation. However, recent evidence suggests that captive-reared monarchs may lose their capacity to orient southward during fall migration to their Mexican overwintering sites, raising questions about the value and ethics of this activity undertaken by tens of thousands of North American citizens, educators, volunteers and conservationists each year. We raised offspring of wild-caught monarchs on swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) indoors at 29°C during the day and 23°C at night (~77% RH, 18L:6D), and after eclosion, individuals were either tested in a flight simulator or radio tracked in the wild using an array of automated telemetry towers. While 26% (10/39) of monarchs tested in the flight simulator showed a weakly concentrated southward orientation, 97% (28/29) of the radio-tracked individuals that could be reliably detected by automated towers flew in a south to southeast direction from the release site and were detected at distances of up to 200 km away. Our results suggest that, although captive rearing of monarch butterflies may cause temporary disorientation, proper orientation is likely established after exposure to natural skylight cues.

中文翻译：

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人工饲养的迁徙帝王蝶在野外释放时显示出自然定向

在过去的二十年里，北美东部迁徙帝王蝶 ( Danaus plexippus ) 的数量急剧下降。圈养帝王蝶是一种流行且广泛使用的公共教育和保护方法。然而，最近的证据表明，人工饲养的帝王蝶在秋季迁徙到墨西哥越冬地点时可能会失去向南定向的能力，这引发了对成千上万北美公民、教育工作者、志愿者和志愿者进行的这项活动的价值和道德的质疑。保护主义者每年。我们用沼泽乳草（Asclepias incarnata) 室内白天 29°C，晚上 23°C（~77% RH，18L:6D），羽化后，个体要么在飞行模拟器中进行测试，要么在野外使用一系列自动遥测技术进行无线电跟踪塔。虽然在飞行模拟器中测试的 26% (10/39) 帝王蝶表现出弱集中向南的方向，但 97% (28/29) 可以被自动塔可靠检测到的无线电跟踪个体向南向东南方向飞行来自释放地点，并在最远 200 公里外被检测到。我们的结果表明，虽然圈养帝王蝶可能会导致暂时的迷失方向，但在暴露于自然天窗线索后可能会建立正确的方向。