As long as I can remember I have admired Monarch butterflies – I am sure I was attracted by their colorful wings. I admit I really didn’t know much about them until I read a book by Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior. It is a novelistic examination of some of the contemporary challenges facing the Monarch butterfly. I was prompted to read more about the monarch and was surprised to learn of its complex multigenerational migratory life cycle.
The Butterflies have one relatively long lived generation often called the methuselah generation that lives from October until March or April. It flies from as far north as Toronto to one of several mountain sanctuaries in Mexico. It starts south in late October or early November and arrives at the mountain sanctuaries in November where it stays on the local Oyamel pine trees, clustering in enormous groups. There will be many million butterflies in a sanctuary area. They don’t eat and they drink little during the winter and then in early spring take off for the north. In the southern U.S. they will mate and the females lay eggs where the first north bound generation is born. It may take 3-5 generations for the monarchs to make it all the way north, each generation living only a few weeks. Finally come fall a new methuselah generation is born that flies south back to the sanctuaries.
I find it mind boggling that the south bound generation can find its way back to the same sanctuary its great-great grandparent left from. There are of course theories partially explaining how they make their way back. How the tiny insect can manage that navigational feat remains amazing to me.
When the opportunity to visit the sanctuaries with Natural Habitat adventure travel came up I jumped at the chance. The sanctuaries we visited, El Rosario and Chincua are both near the remote mountain town of Angangueo. Formerly it was a mining town, but now butterfly tourism has become a major industry for the town. It is at about 9500 feet of elevation and the sanctuaries at 10,000 to 10,500 feet of elevation.
The locals guide visitors into the sanctuary on horseback. Once in the sanctuary the visitors walk the trails around the trees where the butterflies are clustered.
The url for the gallery is:
It can also be reached at:
http://petersidell.smugmug.com
Then select travels from the menu bar and Mexico/Caribbean as the category. Finally select the gallery:”Monarch Butterfly sanctuaries Angangueo Mexico.”
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Places I've been. Things I've seen - Peter Sidell 