Celebrating a Monarch Milestone: The Day Their Secret Winter Roosting Spot Was Finally Found by Citizen Scientists Ken Brugger and Catalina Aguado Trail

January 2, 1975

On this day, the naturalist Ken Brugger (“Brew-ger”) and his then-wife, Catalina Aguado Trail, discovered the first winter refuge of monarch butterflies in a forest of Oyamel fir trees in the Sierra Madre mountains, 150 miles from Mexico City.

Twenty months later, in August of 1976, Kenneth and Catalina’s discovery made the cover of National Geographic magazine.

The image showed a picture of Catalina - covered in monarch butterflies. She was 26 years old.

Ken was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1918.

After serving in World War II, Ken worked for Jockey International - the company known for making underwear.

Ken was mechanically inclined, and he ultimately became Jockey's Chief Engineer.

Ken was credited with many of Jockey’s innovations.

He even invented a machine that minimized shrinkage in the fabric of the underwear and undershirts.

It was called a compactor.

During the 1960s, Kenneth moved to Mexico.

There, Kenneth met his future wife, Catalina.

Ken and Catalina were passionate naturalists and loved to explore together. They both shared a passion for butterflies and bees.

A native of Mexico, Catalina brought skills that helped their discovery - she knew the country, understood the culture and the people, and was fluent in Spanish.

In 1972, Kenneth read an advertisement in a Mexico City newspaper by the Canadian zoologist husband-and-wife team of Fred and Norah Urquhart (“Irk-Heart”).

The Urquharts had followed the monarchs as far as Texas and believed the butterflies wintered somewhere in Mexico. But to discover the Monarch hideaway, they needed help, so they placed their advertisement in search of citizen scientists to help their research.

Luckily, Ken and Catalina answered the advertisement and became paid assistants to the Urquharts.

Together, Ken and Catalina completed the work begun by Fred and Norah 38 years earlier.

In the years since their discovery, Ken and Catalina divorced.

Ken started Mr. Bee in Austin, Texas. His entomology background made him an outstanding swarm removal expert.

Ken died at the age of 80 in 1998.

Today, Catalina remains in Austin, Texas.

She tells people, "I'm not a scientist… I'm a gardener who likes insects."

Ken and Catalina’s quest was part of an IMAX movie, Flight of the Butterflies.

There is one touching fact worth mentioning about Ken’s personal story.

His Wikipedia entry says that he couldn’t fully appreciate the beauty of witnessing the monarchs at their winter home; Ken was colorblind.