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, and the largest. In 1986, the Mexican government established two zones that form a Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve – protected from logging and development – although Rosario was considered a sanctuary before that.
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MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Mexican government on Tuesday defended its expropriation of 27 sugar mills in 2001, but said it will abide by a Supreme Court decision reversing the takeover.
The expropriation "was the most viable decision in order to maintain social peace and harmony in the sugar industry," President Vicente Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, told a news conference.
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
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,
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
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
The Blessed Mother's miracle in Mexico
Every year, pilgrims from around the world travel to Mexico to visit a temple on a hill at Tepeyac. The heaviest traffic comes from Dec. 9 to 12, the days during which the devout believe the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a poor Indian named Juan Diego in 1531 and performed signs that helped him persuade the bishop of Mexico to build a temple in Mary's name at Tepeyac. The temple is called Guadalupe.
The signs attributed to the Blessed Mother at Tepeyac include the cure of Juan Diego's uncle, who was close to death. Going
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
BasÃlica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
The origin of its cult goes back to the year of 1531. The 9 of December of that year, in the hill of the Tepeyac --near the rising City of Mexico, old Aztec capital, the Virgin Maria appeared to the Indian Juan Diego, does canonized by the Pope very little Juan Pablo II. It spoke to him in Nahuatl, communicating his desire to him of which in that place a temple was built where cult could be given him.
Thus Juan pronounced itself to it Diego to Fray bishop Juan de Zumárraga OFM. Doubting his
All declared dead in Mexican mine blast
The 65 men trapped by a Mexican coal mine explosion six days ago cannot have survived their ordeal underground and are all dead, mine owners say.
The Grupo Mexico company said that while no bodies have yet been found, tests showed there was almost no oxygen inside the mine's shafts and tunnels and no hope of finding survivors from the explosion last Sunday.
"We are going to move on to the hard task of the physical recovery of our miners ... so the families can start their mourning," said Xavier Garcia, a senior executive at Grupo
