Monarch Migration
Each fall the monarch butterfly travels thousands of miles to spend the winter in the forests on 12 mountaintops in central Mexico. The monarch migration is the most spectacular two-way migration carried out by an insect.
The forests provide unique microclimatic conditions that allow monarchs to survive the winter. Forest degradation is putting this amazing migration in peril.
The abundance of monarchs shows a discouraging downward trend over the past 20+ years. Click on the graph to enlarge and on this link to read how the numbers were obtained.
In the Spotlight
Dr. Cuauhtémoc Saénz-Romero and Dr. Arnulfo Blanco-García, along with OKRAM media producers, made a video describing their assisted migration experiments. These experiments are exploring how planting oyamel fir trees at different elevations affect their growth and survival to prepare for future climatic changes that may occur and improve reforestation efforts in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. You can watch it by clicking HERE. MBF is proud to be among the many organizations that are supporting this exciting and important research!