News and Stories

A splash of orange and black floating in the air above your yard is a source of awe and inspiration for children and adults – and this conservationist! The US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing protection for the monarch butterfly listing them as a threatened species and most importantly asking for your participation by providing a public comment by March 12, 2025.

One of our greatest superpowers is our optimism in the face of daunting challenges.  Not blind optimism but the kind that is grounded in having both the will and the way to build a wave of momentum that changes the outcome.

Monarchs are remarkably resilient even in the face of drastic population declines, and today they need our participation to secure their future.  Monarch butterflies need plants that we can put in our garden – milkweed, host plants for their caterpillars, and nectar plants to fuel their migration.

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden can give you an assist.  If you haven’t already, now is a great time to join our campaign to add Plants for Pollinators to your garden.   Zoos across the nation are working on similar initiatives to save the monarch from extinction, and your Cincinnati Zoo’s Conservation Impact team has led the way.  Our team members played leadership roles in writing the AZA SAFE North American Monarch Plan and are still active in the program.

Why are monarch butterflies so iconic? 

They are the only multigenerational migrant known to science.  In one year, four generations are needed to make the near 3,000-mile round trip from the US and Canada to the forest of Michoacan, Mexico.  In 2019 I had the honor of leading a Zoo team to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve – A World Heritage site.  What we witnessed was truly breathtaking.   Skies filled with Monarchs in an unprecedented display of Natures majesty.

The true beauty of this spectacle is that we are part of the story.  Every time you invite a monarch butterfly to your yard by planting milkweed or nectar plants that fuel their migration you add your voice to the millions of people and organizations ensuring their future.  And if you are lucky, you will be visited by this orange and black ambassador from Mother Nature and will host the birth of a new generation of Monarchs!