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Everyone has been asking me about the robins, but it seems it wasn't the orange, black and brown birds that suffered. It was the butterflies of those same colors.
Reuters reports this morning that the same storms which brought so much snow to the US this February brought unusual, drenching rains to Mexico. The wet weather had a very damaging effect on the monarch populations which reside there each winter.
Depressingly, one of the researchers says he fears he may outlive the entire species. He is already 78 years old.
For the full story, go to:
With hopeful thoughts I'm pasting a picture of one of the monarch caterpillars we found in the back yard last year.
I guess in the US one of the best things we can do is provide a home to those monarchs that remain. Keeping planting that milkweed everyone.
2 comments:
I have also read that increased use of roundup-ready crops in the midwest has drastically reduced the milkweed that used to grow on the edges of fields there, so the monarchs aren't getting enough to eat when they fly north.
This definitely seems to be another factor. Even in this same article, land use change in the US is cited as a stressor for these butterflies: "Even before strange weather became commonplace, the monarch was imperiled due to a loss of food and habitat. As they sail across the Great Plains, monarchs survive on milkweed that is being crowded out by large-scale farming."
Urban gardeners can't replace the Mexican fir trees the butterflies need, but we can improve their habitat here.
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