How the climate crisis is killing Mexico’s butterflies

Populations of monarch butterflies in Mexico have plummeted, threatening the country’s vital biosphere. Naomi Schanen investigates

Every year, millions of monarch butterflies migrate to the same remote stretch of forest in central Mexico (Photo for The Washington Post by Kevin Sieff)

Every year, millions of monarch butterflies make their way across North America to spend winters in the same forests of central Mexico’s Michoacan state – a phenomenon that remains an evolutionary mystery.

But in just one year, the population of monarch butterflies wintering in those hillsides dropped 22 per cent, according to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico report released last week.