[leps-talk] Why aren't Mexico's overwintering monarchs in the news yet this winter?

[Paul Cherubini]

Mark Walker wrote:

> I'm expressing my trouble with the frequency of these reports,
> the bias of the reports towards doom and gloom, and the bothersome 
> situation that the same names seem to be drawing as much attention
> to the their guruship as to the fate of the Monarchs.  ...the data also 
> suggests that these people are supporting a cause and not science. 

Mark, I agree and would like to provide an example of how the situation
in Mexico gets exaggerated.

Every year Dr. Orley (Chip) Taylor publishes a Season Summary of the
work of the Monarch Watch http://www.saber.net/~monarch/seasum.JPG

On page 4 of the 2000 Season Summary Dr. Taylor displayed this picture
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/chivati.JPG and wrote this caption:

"Chivati is a severely deforested area near the monarch overwintering sites.
This site was formerly a major roosting site for monarchs."

The casual reader would gain the impression that a major monarch
overwintering site in Mexico had been wiped out by loggers.

But in reality the monarch site was not wiped out. Dr. Taylor's picture 
shows only the north slope of the Chivati mountain and the monarchs 
never clustered on these north slopes to begin with. The deforestation 
was caused by forest fires, not some big clear cut logging operation.

The colony has always formed on the south slopes of Chivati. Now 
it's true the specific trees the butterflies used to cluster on got 
burned down, but the butterflies merely relocated to a unburned 
patch of forest several hundred feet away on this same mountain.
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/hchivati.JPG.  

Paul Cherubini

 
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