Data story 03 ยท Map
Where monarchs breed in Canada
Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed, so an egg, caterpillar or chrysalis tells us a monarch family started there. This map shows where people across Canada have reported those young monarchs.
Read it right
Every chart has limits. Here is what this one can tell you, and what it cannot.
What this shows
- Where young monarchs were foundReports of monarch eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises in each province: 16,098 records.
- The nurserySouthern Ontario and Quebec have the most breeding reports.
What it does not show
- How many monarchs breed in each provincePlaces with more people and more observers send in more reports.
- Records with no life stageIf the observer did not note egg, caterpillar or chrysalis, the record is left out.
Sources. GBIF.org occurrence records for Danaus plexippus with a recorded life stage (CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC), mostly from iNaturalist and Mission Monarch. Boundaries: GADM, Natural Earth. The narrated tour is read by an AI voice (OpenAI gpt-audio, via OpenRouter) from the captions you see. See Data and credits. No endorsement implied.