Thanks to Blake School in Minneapolis, Minnesota those of us who don't speak Spanish can finally read last week's monarch report from the scientists in Mexico!
To: Journey North From: Alfonso Alonso Mejia, Eneida Montesinos y Eduardo Rendon Date: February 15, 1995 RE: Reporting on Monarch Butterflies at 13,300 feet altitude in the Sierra Chincua, Michoacan, Mexico.
"We are studying the life history and conservation of the monarch butterfly in its areas of hibernation in Mexico. We are working in the Chicua mountain range, one of the sites in which the monarch butterfly winters each year. The three of us are biology students. Two of us are from the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico and I am from the University of Florida. The study is being financed by the Wildlife Conservation Society from New York and the Biodiversity Support Program from Washington, D.C. The project is under the guidance of Dr. Lincoln Brower of the University of Florida. The principle objective of the research we are carrying out is to estimate the conditions of the microclimates which allow the millions of butterflies, originating from Canada and the United States, to survive the winter in Mexico.
We began this project during the last hibernation season and we found that the butterflies like to make their colonies in cool and humid places with a fair amount of shade (between 5-10 degrees celcius). This year we are repeating our study in order to become more familiar with the butterflies life history. As you can imagine, each hibernation season is different. This season it was very hot at the begining of the hibernation period, which resulted in the fact that the butterflies were very active in December,1994 and early January,1995. Now in the last few weeks it has been cloudy and rainy in the area. Due to the fact that the temperature has not dropped (it is a warm year) the rain has not turned into snow, as has happened in previous hibernation periods. The appearance of these anomalies in the climatic conditions of the region are due in part to the effects of the global weather changes occurring when the warm water current, "el nino" is present.
"This year, a considerably large number of butterflies arrived in Mexico. We have located 13 colonies in nine different hibernation areas. The majority of the colonies are small (less than one hectar) although in some hibernation areas there are more than two colonies and in one area there are more than five hibernation colonies. The butterflies must like it here.
"We will be in contact pending the beginning of the monarch migration in the end of March.
Hasta luego,
Alfonso, Eneida y Eduardo
Journey North 125 North First Street Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401 Phone: (612)339-6959