Education: Stories from the Field
Monarch butterfly update
Cards for community guides in Mexico's butterfly region
June 2007
The San Diego Zoo continues to support monarch butterfly conservation in a variety of ways. This past winter, the Zoo delivered over 100 guide cards to community guides in the monarch butterfly region of Mexico. These cards help guides at the various butterfly sanctuaries to deliver clear and consistent messages about monarch butterfly biology and conservation to the approximately 300,000 people that travel to see the butterflies each year.
The cards, written in Spanish, are available for download here so that more guides, teachers, tourists, and others can utilize these cards, which distill important information about the monarchs and protecting their winter home.
Mexico’s government recently announced a new “zero tolerance” campaign to combat illegal logging in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. This is an important announcement because stopping illegal logging is critical to protecting the monarch butterfly migration. The San Diego Zoo recognizes that any conservation campaign requires community support. These guide cards will help communities to improve their public tours while delivering messages that inspire tourists, the majority of whom are Mexican, to support and take action for monarch butterfly conservation.
March 2005
Angangueo, Mexico
Millions of monarch butterflies have made the 2,000+ mile migration to their overwintering sites in the forested mountains of central Mexico. But there are 75 percent fewer butterflies here this year than in some previous years, according to scientists monitoring the population. In a recently released report, Lincoln Brower, who collaborates with the San Diego Zoo on conservation measures in Mexico, and others point out that this year's population is the lowest recorded.
Monarch populations, like those of other insects, are amazingly resilient and have bounced back in previous years from huge die-offs. But these delicate creatures depend on an intact forest in Mexico to insulate them from the cold winter temperatures while keeping them just cold enough to allow their bodies to go through a sort of hibernation. This forest is continually assaulted by illegal loggers whose thievery places not only the migration but also the lives of the human residents in that region at stake.
The San Diego Zoo continues to work with our North American and Mexican partners to help reduce the threat of illegal logging on the forest, but it is clear that more needs to be done if we are to protect the astounding spectacle of the monarch butterfly migration.
December 2004
The lifecycle of the monarch butterfly captures the imagination of schoolchildren and scientists alike. Although monarch butterflies are found throughout the world, the North American population living east of the Rocky Mountains engages in a phenomenon that is as unique as it is amazing. Each fall, the entire population of several hundred million monarchs flies up to 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) to communally roost in a small forest region in Mexico for the winter. There, in the mountains of central Mexico, the monarchs will cluster together by the tens of thousands, literally covering their arboreal roosts.
The monarchs’ forest home is owned by groups of peasant farmers organized into groups called ejidos. There are about 100 different communities or private land owners that have land within the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The monarchs and their home are protected by a Mexican presidential decree made in 2000. But for a number of reasons, the forest is still being cut.
Concerned conservationists
The San Diego Zoo is working with Mexican, American, and Canadian collaborators to help protect the winter forest home of the monarchs. The Zoo carries out a variety of projects including guide training, reforestation, fuel-efficient stove construction, supporting community initiatives to combat illegal logging, educational programs for children and adults, and alternative income projects, such as the women’s community pine-needle basket cooperative.
