The tradition of tagging monarch butterflies began in 1940 when Fred Urquhart created a small tag that could effectively stick to the butterfly’s delicate wing. Later, in 1952, Urquhart and his wife Norah enlisted volunteers to help tag monarchs through their Insect Migration Association, today’s Monarch Watch. Decades later, on Jan. 9, 1976, the first tagged monarch was recovered in Mexico’s recently discovered monarch wintering ground.