Even if it is impossible to count them all, scientists assure that compared to 2014 the number of monarch butterflies has increased, but the road is still uphill.
Even if it is impossible to count them all, scientists assure that compared to 2014 the number of monarch butterflies has grown, but the road is still uphill.
The monarch butterfly is the only one to make a very long journey: every winter, in fact, this insect flies from California to Mexico for almost 5 thousand kilometers. The crossing for them begins in the fall before the cold kills them.
The risk every time is that the black and orange butterflies never return; Contrary to the past, however, scientists and environmentalists have noticed a turnaround and in 2015 the number increased by three times.
Photo: Pablo Léautaud,CC
If we wanted to quantify the monarch butterflies we could say that there are so many that they form a chromatic carpet of almost 40 square kilometers. According to environmentalists, they currently are 140 million but the goal to be achieved is 220 million by 2020. A not impossible figure considering that in 1996, the monarch butterfly occupied about 180 square kilometers.
There are many battles waged to save this species both in Mexico and in the United States and in Canada both trying to eliminate the use of herbicides that destroy the plants where these insects lay their eggs, both by cracking down on illegal logging in the monarch reserves.
Dominella Trunfio
Photo: Hope Ryden
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