This is how monarch butterflies find their way

Chetan Sharma

Chetan Sharma Jul 5, 2025

Jan 12, 2018

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                <h1>This is how monarch butterflies find their way</h1>
                <h2><p>A team of University of Washington researchers has figured out how monarch butterflies’ brains use the location of the sun and time of day to know where to go.

The butterflies can migrate up to 3,000 miles to avoid the winter cold. That’s much farther than any other</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/csharma-kcts9-org/">Chetan Sharma</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Jan 12, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>A team of University of Washington researchers has <a href="https://www.washington.edu/news/2016/04/14/scientists-crack-secrets-of-the-monarch-butterflys-internal-compass/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">figured out</a> how monarch butterflies’ brains use the location of the sun and time of day to know where to go.</p><p>The butterflies can migrate up to 3,000 miles to avoid the winter cold. That’s much farther than any other butterflies travel, and almost as far as birds or whales. But unlike birds or whales, they only make this trip once in their lives. In the fall, the butterflies’ compass points them southwest. In the spring, it switches direction.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247(16)30328-X?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">study</a> was published in the journal ‘cell reports.’ For more information check out the project’s <a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/shlizee/monarchcompass/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">blog</a>.</p>
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A team of University of Washington researchers has figured out how monarch butterflies’ brains use the location of the sun and time of day to know where to go.

The butterflies can migrate up to 3,000 miles to avoid the winter cold. That’s much farther than any other butterflies travel, and almost as far as birds or whales. But unlike birds or whales, they only make this trip once in their lives. In the fall, the butterflies’ compass points them southwest. In the spring, it switches direction.

The study was published in the journal ‘cell reports.’ For more information check out the project’s blog.

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By Chetan Sharma

Chetan is an editorial intern at Crosscut. He is a senior at the University of Washington studying Civil Engineering and Urban Planning. He's previously worked as a journalist at KUOW and an engineer