Migrations cover generations
By Arturo Morales Tirado
December 19, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Lecture
The Monarch Butterfly 
Tue, Dec 23, 1:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

Before visiting the biosphere reserve of the monarch butterfly, it is important to understand its life cycle and cultivate a critical awareness of the threat human activities impose on it in Canada, Mexico and the US.

This incredible insect weighs less than two grams and its long-distance migrations span several generations during a year. Sanmiguelenses can visit the sites in Michoacán from November to March.

The Michoacán monarchs migrate 4,000 kilometers from the US east of the Rockies. During their journey they encounter snow, hail, rain, sub-zero temperatures, natural predators like sparrows and the destruction of their habitats in Canada, the US and Mexico.

This unique natural phenomenon has been threatened during the last year. We know this because the relative population in colonies at 12 hibernation sites was not found at all in five sites, and at the other seven sites the occupied surface diminished by 75 percent from three years ago.

I have visited the Monarch site at least 20 times each cycle over the last seven years. My Thursday lecture is profuse with images to illustrate commentary on this amazing phenomenon.

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