Mexican officials and environmental groups say the number of monarch butterflies that hibernate in the country rebounded this year.
The area of land covered by hibernating monarch butterflies in Mexico this year almost doubled compared to last winter.
Monarch butterflies are under pressure from a changing climate and habitat loss. Experts say the past year’s population increase is thanks to more favorable weather conditions — specifically, less intense drought on the butterflies’ route from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico.
The rebound is just a sliver of what was seen there in the 1990s, when scientists in Mexico started estimating the size of the winter population. Experts say the number remains far below the long-term average.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service late last year proposed protecting monarch butterflies under endangered species status.
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One of the cartels designated as a foreign terrorist organization is largely believed to be responsible for the 2019 killing of nine U.S. citizens in the Mexican state of Sonora. -
The Kino Border Initiative and Loyola University Chicago School of Law filed a report to the United Nations, arguing conditions at U.S. immigration detention centers violate international human rights standards — including those prohibiting torture. -
The Sonoran capital, along with three other cities, will become one of the first to receive solar panels through the government program, the governor says. -
Hundreds of firearms and thousands of ammunition were destroyed on International Firearms Destruction Day at a military base in the Mexican state of Sonora. -
The New World screwworm parasite has been in Mexico for more than a year and a half. Now that it’s crossed the border, the United States could turn south for direction.
