Monarch butterfly numbers in Mexico rise by 35% [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Monarch butterfly numbers in Mexico rise by 35%

May 24, 2022

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican experts said Monday that 35% more monarch butterflies arrived this year to spend the winter in mountaintop forests, compared to the previous season.

Experts say the rise may reflect the butterflies’ ability to adapt to more extreme bouts of heat or drought by varying the date when they leave Mexico.

The government commission for natural protected areas said the butterflies’ population covered 2.84 hectares (7 acres) this year, compared to 2.1 hectares (5.2 acres) last year.

The annual butterfly count doesn’t calculate the individual number of butterflies, but rather the number of acres they cover when they clump together on tree boughs.

Each year the monarchs return to the United States and Canada on an annual migration that is threatened by loss of the milkweed they feed on north of the border, and deforestation in the butterfly reserves in Mexico.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-mexico-city-trees-d4f6220ea3ec24fb46ec22f6ad5da0d8


FILE - Monarch butterflies cling to branches in their winter nesting grounds in El Rosario Sanctuary, near Ocampo, Michoacan state, Mexico, Jan. 31, 2020. Mexican experts said Monday, May 24, 2022 that 35% more monarch butterflies arrived this year to spend the winter in mountaintop forests, compared to the previous season. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)