Saturday, June 15, 2013

Monarch 1 News

Jade:  Good afternoon. I'm Jade Pinnock.
Lauren:  and I'm Lauren Jackson.
BOTH:  This is Monarch 1.
Lauren:  Monarch butterflies, also knows as kings of the butterflies, reign supreme when it comes to migration because of their awesome traveling skills.
Jade:  Monarchs don't hibernate.  Some people think it's because they will get too cold and die.  So they have to migrate to a warmer place:  Mexico.
Lauren:  For a monarch to travel from Washington, D.C. to Angangueo, Mexico would depend on temperature and wind conditions.  Usually, it would take about two months.
Jade:  Monarchs know to migrate because of day length, temperature, and maybe the age of the plants they eat.  There might be other reasons they know when to migrate, too.
Lauren:  Monarchs can survive short periods of freezing weather, but not long ones.  Snowstorms won't always kill monarchs, but if they get wet they will freeze.
Jade:  Monarchs fly over oceans, sometimes; but it could be that they were blown across it.  Monarchs can be blown off course.  Or maybe they meant to fly over.  But they can be found on islands or oil rigs in the ocean.  They could die flying over the ocean.
Lauren:  Although scientists aren't positively sure with this answer, one monarch was caught 265 miles away from where it had been released the previous day!
Jade:  The amount of butterflies that fly together varies at different places and times.

Lauren;  Because of CLIMATE CHANGE, it's hard for monarchs.  If temperatures are higher than normal, the monarchs might consider leaving Mexico early. 

Jade:  But that might be a problem for the monarchs, because their food, milkweed, might not be ready to eat when they're here.  We hope scientists will solve this problem.

That's all for now.  I'm Jade Pinnock. 

Lauren:  And I'm Lauren Jackson.

BOTH:  Thank you for watching Monarch 1.

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