Fred and Norah Urquhart

Urquhart was born in Toronto, Canada.{{cite news |date=June 9, 2003 |title=Dr. Fred Urquhart - In Memoriam |work=University of Toronto Bulletin, reproduced at MonarchWatch News, archived via Wayback Machine |url=http://www.monarchwatch.org/news/urquhart.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216162549/http://www.monarchwatch.org/news/urquhart.htm |archive-date=2019-02-16 |accessdate=February 16, 2013}} He attended the University of Toronto, 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 he taught meteorology to students in the Royal Canadian Air Force. 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.

Following the war in 1945, he began work as the assistant director of zoology at the Royal Ontario Museum. 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, now the University of Toronto Scarborough. 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.

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, and recruited hundreds of volunteers or "citizen scientists" who helped in their research by tagging butterflies and reporting findings and sightings.{{cite web|url=http://www.rhfleet.org/shows/flight-butterflies|title=Flight of the Butterflies|work=Reuben H. Fleet Science Center|accessdate=February 18, 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217100436/http://rhfleet.org/shows/flight-butterflies|archivedate=February 17, 2013|df=mdy-all}} The Urquharts raised thousands of monarchs at their home in Scarborough, Ontario, as well as using the facilities of the University of Toronto to analyze their findings and do research.{{cite web|url=http://www.unityserve.org/butterfly/urquharts.html|title=Frederick Urquhart—A Short Biography|work=Urquhart Butterfly Garden|accessdate=February 18, 2013}}{{cite news |date=April 23, 2009 |title=Norah Urquhart a pioneer in monarch butterfly research |work=Inside Toronto |url=http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/37233-norah-urquhart-a-pioneer-in-monarch-butterfly-research/ |accessdate=February 18, 2013}}

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 (then known as Cathy Aguado) finally located the first known wintering refuge for the butterflies on a mountaintop in Michoacán, Mexico, more than 4,000 kilometers from the starting point of their migration.{{cite journal|last=Urquhart|first=Fred A.|date=August 1976|title=Found at last: the monarch's winter home (archived October 9, 2022, via the Wayback Machine)|journal=National Geographic|url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/1976/08/monarch-butterflies/urquhart-text |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160212183841/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/1976/08/monarch-butterflies/urquhart-text |archive-date=2016-02-12 }}

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 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 known as the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. 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 {{convert|130|km|mi}} 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.

Urquhart helped found the Federation of Ontario Naturalists in the 1940s. The Unquharts founded the Insect Migration Association.

• On May 6, 1998, Fred and Norah Urquhart were both appointed Member of the Order of Canada (CM).{{cite web|url=https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-5071|title=Mrs. Norah Roden Urquhart|date=May 6, 1998|work=The Governor General of Canada|access-date=9 October 2022}}
• Fred and Norah Urquhart received the W.W.H. Gunn award presented by the Federation of Ontario Naturalists.
• He was a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.
• The Urquhart Butterfly Garden in Dundas, Ontario 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.{{Cite web |date=2013-06-08 |title=About the Garden |url=https://urquhartbutterfly.com/about/ |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=Urquhart Butterfly Garden |language=en}}
• An IMAX film, Flight of the Butterflies, tells the story of the long search by the Urquharts, Brugger, and Trail to unlock the secret of the butterflies' migration.{{cite web |last=Maeckle |first=Monika |date=July 10, 2012 |title=Founder of the Monarch Butterfly Roosting Sites in Mexico Lives a Quiet Life in Austin, Texas |url=http://texasbutterflyranch.com/2012/07/10/founder-of-the-monarch-butterfly-roosting-sites-in-mexico-lives-a-quiet-life-in-austin-texas/ |accessdate=February 17, 2013}}{{Cite web |title=Flight of the Butterflies |url=http://www.flightofthebutterflies.com/home/ |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=SK Films}}

Fred Urquhart died in 2002 at the age of 90 in Pickering, Ontario.{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2009/04/18/couples_home_was_butterfly_ground_zero.html|title=Couple's home was butterfly ground zero|last=Dale|first=Daniel|date=April 18, 2009|work=Toronto Star|accessdate=February 18, 2013}} Norah died on March 13, 2009, also in Pickering and also at age 90.

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

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

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{{Archival records|title=Frederick A. Urquhart}}

• [http://www.monarchwatch.org/ Monarch Watch]

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Category:1911 births

Category:2002 deaths

Category:Scientists from Toronto

Category:University of Toronto alumni

Category:Members of the Order of Canada

Category:Royal Ontario Museum

Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto

Category:National Geographic people

Category:20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century Canadian zoologists

Category:Canadian entomologists

Category:People from Pickering, Ontario