In fact, the total amount of land dedicated to helping butterflies overwinter peacefully is about 56,000 hectares. That's about the size of 56,000 soccer fields!
Monarchs can only lay their eggs on milkweed plants. If there are no milkweed plants, due to deforestation, farming or landscaping, the monarchs can't lay their eggs. Monarchs, along with other butterflies, are great pollinators. As they fly from flower to flower, drinking nectar, they help plants reproduce by spreading the pollen.
Monarch butterflies are an indicator species, which means they "indicate" or point out how an environment is doing. By tracking monarch migration patterns, scientists can measure the quality of an environment. If the quality of the environment has declined, the population or the health of monarchs decreases. This year, because this region of Mexico has suffered from lots of rain and cold weather, a lot of the monarchs died, meaning fewer monarchs will migrate north in the spring and lay their eggs. As climate change continues to be an issue in our society, the monarch's migration and reproductive cycle could be impacted as temperatures fluctuate.
