Mariposa Monarca Feb 7, 2011

Feb 7, 2011 Mariposa Monarca. We went to Piedra Herrada near Valle de Bravo an hour or more west of Mexico City. Dad road a horse up and back the mile long steep dusty trail to where the Monarchs had migrated. I caught a ride the last 500 ft but walked all the way down.

Monarch butterflies are native to North America and are the most well known of all the butterflies. Every autumn, after a very long journey of 4,500km, the Monarch butterflies arrive in Mexico to hibernate in the forests on the border between the states of Mexico and Michoacan. On average, the reproductive adult butterflies live four to five weeks. This “Mathusalem” generation achieve the incredible task of flying from the southeastern Canada and northeastern United States of America to the center of Mexico and returns. This migration is one of the most impressive natural phenomena on earth thanks to millions of butterflies that travel south every autumn.

During the winter the butterflies use the oyamel forests (Abies religiosa) as hibernation habitat because it provides adequate microclimatic conditions. This forest is restricted to the highest
mountains of Mexico between 2,400 and 3,600m above sea level.

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However, when autumn arrives a special generation is born which, in contrast to their predecessors with short lives, live up to seven or eight months. If humans live 75 years on average, the equivalent would be that our children live for 525 years.