Monarch Butterflies

Hi I am Marley the monarch butterfly, and I am writing this blog to tell you me and my fellow monarchs. You can find us wherever you can find milkweed, such as North America, Central America, northwards to southern Canada, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts. However, in the winter you will find us in the warm climate of Mexico! You can see thousands of us takings a rest from our big trip in trees in your back yard. Did you know that we plan for these big trips with our children??? In the summer we breed four generations of monarch butterflies. The first three generations will live about two to six weeks, long enough to head northward for the first months of summer, and breed the super monarchs! The super monarchs live up to nine months. These are the monarchs that will go on the long migration to Mexico, and guess what I am one of them!!! And guess what makes the migration even cooler!! My favorite thing to do is travel the world and taste all the different nectar. ( Just wanted to tell you a little bit about myself ;)) Anyway on of the reasons we do migrate is because if our bodies are below 86 degrees we can not fly. To warm up we must sit in the sun until our temperature is back up. In the mean time we are very vulnerable to predators,even if we do not taste good, predators still make mistakes. Another thing we are vulnerable to is habitat loss. Our milkweed is vanishing by the minute, and that means our larva will not be able to survive. One of the main reasons for our habitat loss is illegal logging in Mexico. Without the trees in Mexico we do not have a winter home. How else are we supposed to survive the cold season. However people are trying to help our amazing species by creating areas just for us, such the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The reserve protects 62 square miles of forests in the Sierra Madres where hundreds of million of us monarchs spend each winter. You can help protect us to by planting a helpful little milkweed garden for our young! Thank a bunch for reading…

-Marley