Arab Times

Weather threatens monarchs:

Discovery

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Heavy storms earlier this year hammered the forests that North America’s monarch butterflie­s migrate to in central Mexico, a study showed on Tuesday, fueling fears the habitat could eventually become untenable.

Conservati­onists said storms and strong winds in March uprooted more than 20,000 trees in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, which lies west of the capital on the border of the states of Mexico and Michoacan.

Nearly 54 hectares (135 acres) of the core of the reserve were hit, the most significan­t impact since storms during the 2009-10 season ravaged more than 100 hectares (250 acres), said Omar Vidal, director-general of the Mexican arm of the World Wildlife Fund.

That represents a small portion of the 13,551-hectare (34,000-acre) area of the reserve’s core.

But Vidal said: “It’s worrying because this may indicate that the weather will continue to become more extreme.” Butterflie­s fell to the ground during the storms, were hit by rains and froze to death, he said.

“It’s a large amount of trees, it’s a large amount of forest, so essentiall­y we’re losing habitat for the monarch in this sanctuary,” he added. “We need to restore areas that have been deforested, either by illegal logging or violent winds, so that the monarch continues visiting these areas in the long run.”

The black and orange monarch, the world’s farthest-migrating butterfly, travels every November from Canada and the United States to the temperate forests of the states of Mexico and Michoacan to hibernate for five months. (RTRS)

 ??  ?? Khalil
Khalil
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Vidal

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