MEXICO: Mexico butterfly sanctuary opens to tourists.

Millions of monarch butterflies, which made a fascinating annual 3,000-mile (4,828 kilometre) trek from Canada to Mexico, fluttered through trees at their Mexican sanctuary that opened to the public on Friday (November 17). In the first days of autumn, as the temperatures cool and the days become shorter in North America, millions of butterflies leave their homes and fly to the temperate Mexican woods, where they arrive in the beginning of November. Mexico has set up several sanctuaries in the Angangueo forest in the western part of the country to protect the endangered species and the only area where the species reproduces. Even with the sanctuary, the animals are not out of danger, said sanctuary director Ernesto Enkerlin. "During the season, there could be a cold snap. The monarch butterfly is pretty well adapted to low temperatures and it would have to be a very extreme condition-- over 24 hours of temperatures lower than 10 degrees below zero-- for it to be affected," said Enkerlin. "The possibility of that happening is low, but it can't be said that the possibility doesn't exist." Each year, tens of thousands of the bright orange and black butterflies arrive in Mexico's Michoacan state to sit out the winter months in central Mexico's temperate forests before returning to Canada. Not one butterfly makes the entire round-trip journey. Instead, the offspring of those who start it head instinctively for a place they've never been. After leaving Mexico, it takes three or four generations of monarch butterflies to reach their summer grounds in Canada and northern areas of the United States. The last generation, which has a longer life span, then makes the journey south to Mexico for the winter, where they fill the sanctuary trees. Tourist Lidia Madero said preservation of the sanctuary is a priority. "To continue these conservation sites is very important to me because it's a strategy that they (the butterflies) have developed through thousands of years so that they can survive the North American winter," she said as she walked around. Over the five months the sanctuaries are open, thousands of tourists visit the forest and the popular Llano de la Papas, El Rosario, Los Azufres and Mil Cumbre areas, providing an important source of income for local residents. Monarch butterflies are endangered because of illegal woodchoppers that damage their natural habitat and cooler North American winters.

ITN Source | November 26, 2006

Tags:. .extreme. .danger. .reach. .grounds. .fill