Natural cruelty unspeakable

From "London Telegraph"

February 13, 2002

Millions of butterflies killed by a strange storm
by Ronald Buchanan, Mexico City


Scientists yesterday reported that hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies have died in a bizarre snowstorm in the mountains of Mexico, where these butterflies stay here every winter, after flying as far as 3000 miles (4800 km).
The U.S. and Mexican researchers estimate that as many as 270 million butterflies tails helpless polluted soil, after a storm last month in the pine forest, west of Mexico City.
"I've never seen anything like this," he said. Lincoln Brower, an American zoologist who has been monitoring this migration for 25 years.
Annual flight of this butterfly from the east, the direction Canada is far away, has been regarded as one of the great migrations in the animal world.
They descended into the forest in the form of large orange cloud every November.
Since their arrival coincided with the Feast of the Dead in Mexico, so many villagers who believed that these butterflies represent the spirits of their ancestors.