Animal Monarch butterflies occupy more area in Mexico's forests
This winter, twice as many orange monarch butterflies have reached their wintering grounds in Mexico than last year. The larger population this year is considered a good sign.
07.03.2025, 05:01
SDA
The increase is mainly due to better weather conditions along their migration route in North America, according to the National Commission for Protected Areas of Mexico and the nature conservation organization WWF.
The butterflies fly around 4,000 kilometers from Canada and the USA to the forests in central Mexico to spend the winter there in milder temperatures. According to official figures, eight butterfly colonies formed this year on a total forest area of around 1.79 hectares. In the previous season, the figure was 0.90 hectares.
The population has declined sharply in recent years
Millions of butterflies can be found from November to March in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, which is located in the states of Michoacán and México. As they cannot be counted individually, the population is measured by the area of forest covered. The use of pesticides in agriculture in the USA, deforestation in Mexico and climate change are endangering the migration.
Experts describe the latest figures as encouraging, but they are still among the lowest in the last ten years. In the record-breaking 1996/1997 season, monarch butterflies occupied more than ten times the area this winter, covering 18.19 hectares in Mexico's pine and fir forests.
The monarch butterflies that migrate to Mexico and overwinter there have an exceptionally long lifespan of around nine months. After the winter, however, several successive generations, which live much shorter lives, fly back northwards in a kind of relay race.
