Monarch Conservation Perspectives A View from Mexico By Jordi Honey-Rosés Jordi Honey-Rosés November 16, 2003 The Monarchs’ Arrival at the Overwintering Sites in Mexico Monarch butterflies have begun to fill the skies of central Mexico thereby inaugurating the 2003-04 Monarch overwintering season. Their late arrival this year has made Monarch watchers especially anxious to spot the continental travelers conclude the last leg of their fall migration. Conventional wisdom on the internet and in Mexico agrees that the rainy and stormy weather conditions in the months of September and October throughout Mexico probably delayed slightly the Monarchs arrival this year. At the end of October no word of any significant Monarch sightings had yet been brought to my attention. Community leaders that benefit from tourism are usually the first to spread the news of the Monarch’s arrival in the last week of October. However the first report of major Monarch clusters came well into the first week of November. My own first sighting of a lone Monarch came on October 30th in Zitácuaro, Michoacán. It was also the first Monarch sighting of the season for my two World Wildlife Fund (WWF) colleagues both of whom reside in Zitácuaro. On November 14th a leading community member from the Ejido Cerro Prieto claimed that three colonies had formed in the Sierra Chincua. Local reports are usually tremendously valuable and helpful for researchers and conservationists working in the area. At the same time one needs to be cautious since local claims can be biased, or at least slightly tainted by the promotional necessity of their tourism businesses. It is also common for locals to provide the answers that they believe the eager Monarch researcher would like to hear. After having received permission from both the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) and the Ejido Cerro Prieto we ventured up to the Sierra Chincua on the morning November 15th to find the reported Monarch colonies. Joining me was Pablo Ángeles, a Forester working for WWF and David Lagacé, a research collaborator with the MBBR. We departed by foot from the Llano de las Papas Biological Station at 10:35 am. Instead of taking the main road directly to the Llano Villalobos where the Cerro Prieto tourist entrance is located we instead hiked first to the Llano el Establo. We then crossed over to the Eastern edge of the Llano de Villalobos and encountered our first sighting of a few hundred Monarchs flying high overhead at 10:58 am. Interestingly, no Monarchs were seen in the Llano del Establo located just a few meters to the East or in the Federal Property Zone where we continued our search for the Monarch colony. Using the various local reports to guide us, we finally found a Monarch butterfly colony at 364029 East and 2175693 North UTM (Nad 27) at 1 in the afternoon. The colony was found in an oyamel forest at the approximate altitude of 3,350 meters. Large boulders divided the colony into two sections. Roosting Monarchs occupied 56 trees in the upper section above the boulders and 28 trees in the lower section totaling to 84 trees in all. The irregular polygon of the colony was geopositioned with a GPS unit and later we calculated the area in Arc View giving us an estimate of 1.2 hectares. We then ventured to the Llano del Toro and the Zapatero canyon where Monarchs are found nearly every year. Visitors to the Chincua colony will surely recall the wide trail heading down the Zapatero canyon from the circular esplanade known as the Llano del Toro. The Monarch butterflies were caught in this canyon during the cold winter storm of January 12th and 13th 2002 that left millions of Monarchs frozen. Contrary to a local report, we found no clustering Monarchs near the Llano del Toro or further down into Zapatero canyon. A few Monarchs were seen flying high and up the canyon probably back to the colony we had just visited. We would expect the Monarchs to move down into the Llano del Toro and Zapatero canyon later in the season, probably in late December or early January. No other colony was found on this trip, although it is quite possible that at least a second colony could be found over the ridge at the Llano of Villalobos where we did not fully explore. This week of November 17th the MBBR will formally begin to monitor all the colonies with the help of local ejidatarios. The colonies will also soon be open to the public in the last week of November. Conservation Perspectives Conservation Perspectives will provide regular and accurate updates on the local conservation issues at the Mexican overwintering sites of the Monarch Butterfly. This space will be a forum for discussion and sharing. The updates will serve as conduit for ideas and stories that are rarely heard from Mexican side of the border, especially those successes by local Mexican inhabitants to protect the forest of the Monarch Butterfly.   Copyright 2003 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form