Chicagoans Who Nurtured Monarchs All Summer Learn How Mexicans Preserve Their Winter Home

[Judi Lynn]

Patty Wetli | November 19, 2020 4:22 pm



Monarch butterflies migrate en masse, but they aren’t social creatures, scientists say. (Mageephoto / Pixabay)

Traveling more than 2,000 miles between summer breeding grounds in the north and winter hibernation colonies in the south, monarch butterflies’ migratory journey uniquely links the United States and Mexico in a way no trade agreement or cultural exchange ever could.

Both countries have a stake in the survival of the creature, and both are reliant on the conservation efforts of the other to support the monarch at distinct points in the butterfly’s life cycle.

That interdependence was reiterated during a virtual workshop in which participants in the Field Museum’s Monarch Community Science Project, now in its second year, met Eduardo Rendon-Salinas, who heads the World Wildlife Fund-Mexico’s monarch conservation program.

Members of the Field project spent the summer monitoring patches of milkweed plants – the sole source of food for monarch caterpillars – looking for eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises, and reporting their data to museum staff.

Having nurtured monarchs at the beginning of their life cycle and migration, participants were keen to hear from Rendon-Salinas about what happens once the butterflies reach Mexico.

More:
https://news.wttw.com/2020/11/19/chicagoans-who-nurtured-monarchs-all-summer-learn-how-mexicans-preserve-their-winter-home

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Second Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Worker Found Murdered in Mexico
Body of part-time tour guide Raúl Hernández found days after that of reserve manager Homero Gómez González in Michoacán.
DAVID AGREN THE GUARDIAN
February 3, 2020

A second worker at Mexico’s famed monarch butterfly sanctuary has been found murdered, sparking concerns that the defenders of one of Mexico’s most emblematic species are being slain with impunity.



Two workers from the El Rosario monarch butterfly reserve, Raúl Hernández Romero and Homero Gómez González, have been found murdered in the past week. Photo by Photo by LBM1984.

The body of Raúl Hernández Romero, a part-time tour guide, was found on Saturday, showing injuries possibly inflicted by a sharp object, according to prosecutors in the western state of Michoacán.

Hernández had been reported missing on January 27 in the town of Angangueo, in the heart of the federally protected Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO world heritage site some 180km west of Mexico City.

His death came just days after the body of Homero Gómez González, who managed the El Rosario monarch butterfly reserve, was discovered floating in a well with a head wound. Gómez Gonzalez had been reported missing two weeks earlier.

Officials in the state of Michoacán said they were unsure if the two deaths were linked — or related to the men’s work in the butterfly reserve. The state has seen a rising tide of violence in recent years, and the region around the monarch butterfly reserve has been rife with illegal logging, despite a ban imposed to protect the monarchs, which winter in the pine- and fir-covered hills.

More:
https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/second-monarch-butterfly-sanctuary-worker-murdered-mexico

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Hope the world will find a way to protect these wonderful creatures.

[Bayard]

1. I was thrilled to see a few in my garden this summer

Haven't had any in a long time.