Fred Urquhart
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Frederick Albert Urquhart (December 13, 1911 – November 3, 2002) was a
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
and professor of zoology who studied the migration of
monarch butterflies The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. ...
, ''Danaus plexippus'' L. Together with his wife, Norah Roden Urquhart , he identified their migration routes, discovered that the migration spans multiple generations of butterflies, and found their wintering place in Mexico—considered "one of the greatest natural history discoveries" of the 20th-century.


Early life

Urquhart was born in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. He attended the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
, graduating in 1935 with a degree in biology. He received the Bensley Fellowship for his graduate studies in entomology, receiving an MA in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1940. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
he taught meteorology to students in the
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...
. On July 21, 1945, he married Norah Roden Patterson. She became his full collaborator in butterfly research, although she did not have a Ph.D.


Career

Following the war in 1945, he began work as the assistant director of zoology at the
Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...
. He also began working as a part-time assistant professor of zoology at the University of Toronto in 1948, while still working for the museum. In 1949, he was promoted to the position of the director of zoology and paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum. He became a full-time associate professor of zoology at the University of Toronto in 1961, moving up to a full professor in 1963. In 1966 he helped to organize and teach the zoology program at
Scarborough College Scarborough College is a private coeducational day and boarding school aged 3–18 years in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1898 and opened in 1901. The school has been an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School ...
, now the
University of Toronto Scarborough The University of Toronto Scarborough (abbreviated as U of T Scarborough or UTSC) is a division of the University of Toronto and one of its three campuses, located in the Scarborough, Ontario, Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ...
. He was a popular lecturer and produced a highly successful television lecture series. He wrote four books, a monograph, and 62 papers in peer-reviewed journals, as well as numerous scientific reports and popular articles. His best known books are ''The Monarch Butterfly'' (University of Toronto Press, 1960) and ''The Monarch Butterfly: International Traveler'' (University of Toronto Press, 1987). He retired in 1977.


Monarch research

Urquhart's research on the route and destination of the insects started in 1937 and lasted for 38 years. Working with his wife Norah, he 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 Monarch Watch is a volunteer-based citizen science organization that tracks the fall migration of the monarch butterfly. It is self-described as "a nonprofit education, conservation, and research program based at the University of Kansas that fo ...
, and recruited hundreds of volunteers or "
citizen scientists The term citizen science (synonymous to terms like community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is research conducted with participation from the general public, or am ...
" who helped in their research by tagging butterflies and reporting findings and sightings. The Urquharts raised thousands of monarchs at their home in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, as well as using the facilities of the University of Toronto to analyze their findings and do research. The Urquharts 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 Catalina Trail (née Aguado, previously known as Cathy Brugger) is a Mexican-born naturalist and social worker. She is noted for discovering, with her then-husband Kenneth C. Brugger, the location of the overwintering sites of the monarch butter ...
(then known as Cathy Aguado) finally located the first known wintering refuge for the butterflies on a mountaintop in
Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...
,
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, 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. His article "Discovered: The Monarch's Mexican Haven" was published in ''
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
'' magazine in August 1976, 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 World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
known as the
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve () is a World Heritage Site containing most of the overwintering sites of the eastern population of the monarch butterfly. The reserve is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests ecoregi ...
. Current conservation efforts are aimed at protecting monarchs in their breeding areas in the US and Canada. Among other discoveries, the Urquharts learned that the butterflies only travel in daylight and can fly up to in a day. The trip north spans several generations of monarchs, while a much-longer-lived "super generation" flies from the northern reaches of the butterfly's range all the way to Mexico, overwinters there, and breeds in the spring to start the next generation flying north.


Professional affiliations

Urquhart helped found the
Federation of Ontario Naturalists Ontario Nature ''(formally the Federation of Ontario Naturalists)'' is an environmental charity based in Toronto, that promotes the conservation of wild species and spaces in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was established in 1931 as the Fed ...
in the 1940s. The Unquharts founded the Insect Migration Association.


Recognition

* On May 6, 1998, Fred and Norah Urquhart were both appointed
Member of the Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...
(CM). * Fred and Norah Urquhart received the W.W.H. Gunn award presented by the
Federation of Ontario Naturalists Ontario Nature ''(formally the Federation of Ontario Naturalists)'' is an environmental charity based in Toronto, that promotes the conservation of wild species and spaces in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was established in 1931 as the Fed ...
. * He was a fellow of the
Royal Entomological Society The Royal Entomological Society is a learned society devoted to the study of insects. It aims to disseminate information about insects and to improve communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological S ...
. * The Urquhart Butterfly Garden in
Dundas, Ontario Dundas () is a community and urban district in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is nicknamed ''Valley Town'' because of its topographical location at the bottom of the Niagara Escarpment on the we ...
is a 3-acre park designed to attract butterflies. Named after Fred and Norah and created in 1994, it was the first municipal butterfly garden in Canada. * An
IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...
film, ''
Flight of the Butterflies ''Flight of the Butterflies'' is a 2012 Cinema of Canada, Canadian documentary film directed and co-written by Mike Slee for 3D film, 3D IMAX, starring Megan Follows, Gordon Pinsent, and Shaun Benson. The film covers Fred Urquhart, Dr. Fred Urquha ...
'', tells the story of the long search by the Urquharts, Brugger, and Trail to unlock the secret of the butterflies' migration.


Personal life

Fred Urquhart died in 2002 at the age of 90 in
Pickering, Ontario Pickering (2021 Canadian census, 2021 population 99,186) is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada, immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region, Ontario, Durham Region. Beginning in the 1770s, the area was settled by primarily British colon ...
. Norah died on March 13, 2009, also in Pickering and also at age 90.


Select publications


Books

* ''The Monarch Butterfly''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960. * ''The Monarch Butterfly: International Traveler''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.


Journal articles

* "Found at Last: The Monarch's Winter Home". ''National Geographic'', August 1976.


References


External links


Monarch Watch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urquhart, Fred 1911 births 2002 deaths Scientists from Toronto University of Toronto alumni Members of the Order of Canada Royal Ontario Museum Academic staff of the University of Toronto National Geographic people 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian zoologists Canadian entomologists People from Pickering, Ontario