Monarch butterfly population drops by nearly one third

[n2doc]

BY KESAVAN UNNIKRISHNAN

The annual overwintering count of monarch butterflies shows that butterfly numbers fell by nearly one-third this year reversing last year’s recovery from historically low numbers.


Monarch butterfly population drops by nearly one third
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BY KESAVAN UNNIKRISHNAN 4 HOURS AGO IN ENVIRONMENT
The annual overwintering count of monarch butterflies shows that butterfly numbers fell by nearly one-third this year reversing last year’s recovery from historically low numbers.

Millions of the butterflies migrates up to 2,800 miles from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico each year and they cluster tightly in the pine and fir forests in the sanctuaries of the Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. Monarch populations are measured by the number of hectares of trees occupied by clustering butterflies. This year that coverage has been estimated at 2.91 hectares, down from last year’s figure of four, which itself was a sharp improvement from the 1.13 hectares in 2014-2015.
However, coverage used to be as much as 20 hectares few decades ago.

Omar Vidal, the head of the Mexico office of the World Wildlife Fund said:

The reduction in the area of forest they occupied this year is most probably due to the high mortality caused by storms and cold weather last year. It is a clear reminder for the three countries that they must step up actions to protect breeding, feeding and migratory habitat. We cannot control the climate, but we can do much better in eradicating illegal logging in the reserve and tackling habitat loss in the U.S. and Canada.

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http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/environment/monarch-butterfly-population-drops-by-nearly-one-third/article/487189

[Bayard]

1. Remember when....

They were everywhere? Milkweed, the only place they will lay eggs, is being taken out all over. We mow around it in our pastures, and I still get a number of Monarchs in my flower gardens. But comparatively, its a minuscule amount.

How many species do we have to destroy?