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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The constitutional reform requires presidential and gubernatorial candidates in Mexico to renounce any non-Mexican citizenship. -
Dr. Jesús Maximiano Verduzco Soto turned himself in to authorities in Hermosillo after evading arrest for months. -
Nearly 30 people have died from heat stroke in the Mexican state south of Arizona this year. -
In Sonora, mothers comb through the desert to try to find the remains of their missing children, even as Mexican officials say the number of homicides across the country is in decline. -
Some communities remained difficult to access after flooding from Tropical Storm Polo.
