NOTE: If you do not want your serenity disturbed DO NOT READ

[Paul Cherubini]

Bob Pyle wrote:

> these transfer hijinks of Cherubini's--which are illegal on at least
> one level, 

As Chris Kline pointed out, the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix
acquired all necessary permits to release these [California]
monarchs as a part of their monarch exhibit.  I was not involved
in any of this; i.e. not involved in the shipping of California
monarchs to Arizona.  So Bob Pyle is mistaken in infering that
I was involved and in infering that the activity was illegal.

Bob Pyle also wrote:
 
> In fact, it was transfer exercises he [Cherubini] took part in decades 
> ago (these are not experiments--there are no controls), moving Cal.
> monarchs to BC and elsewhere and mapping recoveries, that led
> to the erroneous maps and models which appeared in books and
> articles for more than a generation.

I disagree. Monarch biologists such as Dr, Lincoln Brower appear to
have just arbitrarily assumed monarchs did not breed and migrate 
within the Great Basin, Rocky Mountains, western Great Plains or
other mid-to high altitude regions. They assumed the western US 
deserts and mountains were a physical barrier to monarch movement. 
You can see this in this in a 1993 map Lincoln drew which is NOT 
based on the results of monarch transfer experiments:

Small version:http://www.saber.net/~monarch/barrier.JPG
Larger version: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/barrier2.JPG

In reality, monarchs are locally common throughout much
of the Great Basin, Rocky Mountains and western Great Plains
Sometimes so common, in fact. that in 1997, when I was collecting 
monarchs for Dr. Sonia Altizer, I was able to catch DOZENS
of monarchs at multiple locations around the western USA.

Here are some of my ONE DAY catches that are published
at: http://www.monarchlab.umn.edu/research/PNE/infect3.html

Grand Junction, Colorado: 25 monarchs
Salt Lake City, Utah: 30 monarchs
Reno & Minden, Nevada: 21 monarchs
Umatilla, Oregon: 11 monarchs
Outlook, Washington: 32 monarchs

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

 
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