Migrating Monarchs Poem by gershon hepner

Migrating Monarchs



Migrating monarchs in Michoacán,
like wandering wildebeests in Serengeti,
more lovely, precious and amazing than
the treasures in museums like the Getty,
are gravely threatened by extinction, greed
the factor that may wipe the monarchs out,
as man destroys the trees the insects need
to reproduce. Like predators and drought
that threaten the survival of the wild-
ebeests, man’s greed destroys what is more glorious
than paper or the houses that men build
from monarchs’ mating places. Oh, how glorious
a thing is man, made in God’s image, blessed
to reproduce and conquer all the earth,
or so he thinks, for he is just a guest,
though he behaves as if of higher birth
than monarchs that the greedy loggers ravage,
thus proving that, though human, they’re more bestial
than butterflies which prove they are not savage,
migrating in response to clues that are celestial.

Stan Sesser writes about the steps that the Mexicans are taking to protect the habitat of monarch butterflies from loggers who are attempting to destroy it (“Defending the Monarch, ” WSJ, December 19,2008)
When federal police and army soldiers moved into this remote area in a top-secret operation two weeks ago, they didn't just put a small dent in Mexico's crime syndicates. They also made an important contribution toward preserving the world's biodiversity. The targets of their raid were a dozen sawmills that were allegedly processing illegal timber. The fir and pine trees came from forests in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, host to one of nature's most impressive shows.Each November, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies from the U.S. and Canada arrive in this rugged, mountainous region in Michoacán State, about 60 miles west of Mexico City. The phenomenon, often equated with the annual movement of some 1.3 million wildebeests in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, is considered one of the greatest migrations on earth. The butterflies spend the winter roosting in trees here - in concentrations so dense that the weight of them can snap off branches. Illegal logging in the reserve is threatening the winter habitats of the monarchs, researchers say…
Many of the monarchs now arriving in Mexico have journeyed some 2,000 miles from their summer homes in a region that includes most of the U.S. east of the Rockies. A large portion come from the Great Lakes region extending up into Canada. West Coast monarchs have their own migratory route; they spend the summer in the Sierra Nevada mountains and winter in coastal California. The monarchs in the Biosphere Reserve spend the coldest winter months huddled together in the trees, which provide just the right amount of humidity and warmth. As the weather warms in February, they become active. With a low-pitched whir they darken the air as they fly around to mate and rehydrate. Remarkably, although they're concentrated at roughly 20 million per acre, the butterflies somehow manage to avoid bumping into each other. In March they head off to Texas and other Gulf Coast regions to lay their eggs, after which they die; their offspring eventually head north, repeating the cycle of mating, laying eggs and dying. The butterflies that return to Mexico next winter could be three or four generations removed from this year's occupants of the reserve, but somehow they'll know the route and even the precise groves of trees to land in. 'It's got to involve a capacity to respond to celestial clues, and the ability to follow the sun but correct for the time of day, ' says Prof. Brower. As the sun moves through the sky, he explains, the butterflies, who navigate by using the sun, have to change their angle of flight. 'That's done by a body clock in their brain, ' he says. 'A lot of birds are able to do it; the 24-hour clock is something that evolved very early in the animal kingdom.'


12/19/08

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