Sharjah24 - Reuters: From a distance, they appear like autumn foliage: millions of endangered monarch butterflies blanketing trees in a kaleidoscope of brown, orange and black.
As the crisp mountain air warms, they flutter above dazzled visitors who have come to see an annual tradition that persists despite the environmental and human pressures threatening it.
Every year, migratory monarchs travel up to 2,000 miles (3,000 km) from the eastern United States and Canada to spend the winter among the forests of central and western Mexico.
Winter weekends bring hundreds of visitors to Sierra Chincua, an idyllic monarch sanctuary in the western state of Michoacan, about three hours drive from Mexico City.
Sierra Chincua in 1986 was brought into the protected Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site spanning some 138,000 acres (56,000 hectares).
"Tourism helps conserve the forest, it's how we sustain our families," said Juan Vidal, one of three dozen park rangers who patrol the forest and work as guides.
Today, the 54-year-old Vidal says there are fewer monarchs than when he first came as a child.
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