Monarch Butterflies keep coming to Mexico

This year an increase in the flow of Monarch butterflies is expected, with the arrival of more than 35 million butterflies per hectare, a figure closer to reach the expected goal of 220 million butterflies in 6 hectares that researchers from Mexico , Canada , and the United States set by 2020 , said Gloria Fermina Tavera Alonso , member of the trilateral scientific committee for the conservation and management of the Monarchs.

It is a joint effort made by thousands of community members, inhabitants of the region, observers and researchers who take care and protect the forests that serve as a refuge for the butterflies, in coordinated work with their counterparts in the United States and Canada.

The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in the State of Mexico comprises 56,296 hectares, where scientists and community members focus conservation efforts.

After the crisis caused by deforestation , uncontrolled logging , and unusual frosts , among others phenomena occurred by climate change, the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve records a gradual recovery .

“What you see now in sanctuaries are clusters of butterflies , much thicker, with greater density than in previous years,” said Tavera Alonso with great expectations.

It should be noted that the butterflies reach different places to hibernate each year, thus the number of reserves vary, there are seasons in which it is established in seven, nine or eleven sites. "We have had up to 17 butterfly reserves," she assured.

At this moment there are six butterfly reserves located in Piedra Herrada and Valle de Bravo, in the State of Mexico, La Mesa, in San José del Rincón; El Capulín, in Donato Guerra, and in Michoacán, in the municipality of Ocampo; in El Rosario and Chincua, in the municipality of Angangueo.

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