LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — A beautiful butterfly is on the move to a warmer climate for the winter, just like snowbirds. Tens of thousands of Monarch butterflies are now headed from Michigan to Mexico.
“Monarchs can’t survive the winter up in the midwest. They need more moderate conditions. So they end up going to central Mexico and they spend the winter in kind of a slowed down state in forests there. They sort of shut down their system.” – Michigan State postdoctoral researcher Erin Zylstra.
She says the number of monarchs has declined since the mid-1990s, in part due to climate change. She says one remedy to help is planting more milkweed, which is the only plant they lay eggs on and the only plant that Monarch caterpillars eat.
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