Migrating butterflies linger on way to Mexico
Monarch butterflies are flapping their way through Missouri this fall, heading south for the winter. But while scientists say Missouri has probably seen the peak migration for this season, the little voyagers seem to be sticking around a bit longer.
“Most of the migration is over in this area by the fourth of October, but there are unusually large numbers of late monarchs this year due to the warm weather and the strong winds from the southwest,” said Chip Taylor, an entomologist with the University of Kansas research program Monarch Watch.
From Canada to Mexico, those little wings carry them thousands of miles to their destination. That is, if a bumper doesn’t cut the journey short.
One Columbia resident said she’s seen more butterflies than usual in her backyard.
“Not only that, but they’ve been hitting my windshield,” said Amanda Hoefelman, recalling a recent trip to Illinois.
Food sources and air currents help attract monarch butterflies to the state, said MU entomologist Wayne Bailey. They suck nectar from flowers with a straw-like tongue, called a proboscis, which they roll up to their heads when they aren’t feeding.
The number of butterflies migrating through the state varies depending on factors such as weather, but generally the figures are big.
“We can’t answer the numbers question except to say that millions of monarchs pass through Missouri each year,” Taylor said.
Mike Arduser, a biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, said the lifespan of a monarch butterfly is generally a matter of months. Since monarchs have such short lives, a butterfly can start to migrate but die before reaching a destination.
However, monarchs that have never made the trip before can continue the journey without being led and somehow find their way along the same migration routes monarchs fly every year. Scientists are researching whether the migration is linked to wind currents, the butterflies’ ability to use the sun as a compass or the Earth’s magnetic field.
When the butterflies reach their winter destination in Mexico, they often end up occupying the same trees, according to Monarch Watch’s Web site.
Jane Stevens, curator of the Saint Louis Zoo, said plants are one way to attract the traveling monarchs. “Flowers, flowers, flowers — no bug spray,” she said.
Source: columbiamissourian.com
More monarch butterflies may go to Mexico
As many as 200 million Monarch butterflies may migrate to Mexico this year a nearly tenfold increase over 2004, when unfavourable weather, pollution and deforestation caused a drastic decline in the population, environmental officials said on Tuesday.
Last year, fewer than 23 million butterflies survived long enough to leave habitats in the United States and Canada for sanctuaries in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City, and neighbouring Michoacan state. That was at least 75 per cent lower than expected, but should usher in a Monarch resurgence this year, officials said.
After especially cold weather
Mexico sees bigger butterfly migration this year
Wildlife officials say good weather should bring a surge in the number of monarch butterflies migrating to Mexico this year, after last year's cold resulted in the lowest numbers in more than a decade.
Each fall tens of millions of the bright orange and black butterflies begin arriving in central Mexico's Michoacan state to winter in the fir trees after a 3,000-mile (4,800-km) trek from Canada that fascinates biologists.
At El Rosario reserve, one of five butterfly sanctuaries in Mexico, officials expect the insects to occupy far more forest this year than the 2.2 hectares (5.4
Crew plans to tag along when butterflies migrate to Mexico
The annual arrival of millions of Monarch butterflies from the forests of eastern Canada to the central Mexican mountains for the winter is an aesthetic and scientific wonder. And this year, they won't be flying alone.
A crew plans to accompany the butterflies on their 3,415-mile-journey while riding in an oversized hang-glider painted with giant versions of the orange, black and white wings of the Monarch.
Their aim is to raise awareness for the need to better conserve the Monarchs' fragile habitats. Illegal logging is thinning and toppling the fir forests west
Mexico targets loggers in battle over butterflies
With assault rifles over their shoulders and body armor strapped to their chests, Roberto Paleo and his 17 officers are among the world's most heavily armed park rangers. Yet they guard one of nature's most delicate creatures -- the monarch butterfly.
The rangers say they need the weapons to protect the winter nesting grounds of millions of orange and black winged butterflies from armed gangs of illegal loggers in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.
The monarchs are not listed as endangered, but scientists say deforestation could threaten their existence.
Although a single butterfly can spend its
Mexico ready for butterfly invasion
As many as 200 million monarch butterflies may migrate to Mexico this year -- a nearly tenfold increase over 2004, when unfavorable weather, pollution and deforestation caused a drastic decline in the population, environmental officials said Tuesday.
Last year, fewer than 23 million butterflies survived long enough to leave habitats in the United States and Canada for sanctuaries in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City, and neighboring Michoacan state.
That was at least 75 percent lower than expected, but should usher in a monarch resurgence this year, officials said.
Draws 200,000 tourists
"In the past, very low
Fewer Gray Whales Migrating to Warmth of Mexico
The number of gray whales making a yearly migration from the icy North Pacific to breed in Mexico's warm lagoons has dropped this year, possibly because of changing weather patterns, scientists say.
Whale food shortages near Canada and Alaska mean that some of the thousands of whales that make the 5,000-mile journey have departed late or even stayed behind this year, researcher William M. Megill said.
Other researchers said Thursday that varying temperatures in the Bering Sea could be changing migration patterns.
Megill, a lecturer at the University of Bath in Britain, said
Mexico's flood of tired and poor divides America
LAST year the Pew Hispanic Centre polled Mexicans on their attitudes about migrating to the United States.
Asked if they would go to live in the US if they had the means and opportunity, more than four in 10 said yes. More than 20 per cent said they were inclined to go without authorisation.
Last year more than 1 million tried, but were caught. An unknown number succeeded.
Nobody knows how many unauthorised migrants are in the US. The Pew Centre, the most authoritative research organisation on Latino issues, estimates 11 million.
The issue has been a
Brazilians flow in via Mexico
Braunas· For years, Jaider de Andrade, 35, a farm worker, talked about going to the United States to look for work, and early in March he finally agreed to a trafficker's offer to fly him to Mexico and have him guided across the border there. By month's end, though, he was back home again, in a coffin.
"His dream had always been for us to have a little house of our own, but he never could make enough here to get ahead," his widow, Nilce Aparecida Moreira da Silva, said at the couple's homestead. "He knew there
Miracle of the monarch mills in Mexico
They travel thousands of miles, unerringly, every year between Canada and Mexico. No one knows how they find their way.
Las mariposas -- the butterflies -- come by the millions to mate and then to die. They arrive in Mexicos heartland, the Sierra Madre in the state of Michoacan, every November. Five sanctuaries are established to protect them and to let visitors see the miracle of the monarchs.
Guide Andres Orosco and I start the three-hour drive from Morelia to Santuario El Rosario near Angangueo early in the morning.
Rosario is the original butterfly sanctuary in Mexico,
Mexico, Holland send troops to Biloxi
The Marines have landed in Biloxi -- the Mexican Marines.
And Dutch Marines as well.
For the first time since the 19th Century, Mexican troops landed Friday on U.S. soil, sent from the Mexican Navy ship ARM Papaloapan anchored near the USS Bataan. The Mexican ship's name means, "River of Butterflies."
Marines from Mexico, Holland and the U.S. are part of an international Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort building up on ships about 20 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Four Canadian ships are on the way.
"Our President called George Bush and three days later we came here,"
