Protecting the monarch, first step to creating an outdoor butterfly garden in Paloma Park

It is easily recognizable by its bright orange wings with black borders and veins decorated with white dots; it is called the monarch butterfly (danaus plexippus), ... and for decades it has been seen in La Paloma Park. The colony has survived without anyone taking care of it, and it is actually not that easy. And not only because these insects have their predators: "Without a host plant there is no butterfly, and the monarch's host plant, the asclepia curassavica, has had times when it was practically non-existent due to drought, and the caterpillars are very voracious, so there may not be enough food for all," explains Marina González, a biologist at the Benalmádena Butterfly Park.

Everything will change from now on after the local council and the Butterfly Park have signed an agreement aimed not only at preserving this colony but also at "achieving a stable and sustainable population and seeing the complete cycle: caterpillar - chrysalis - butterfly." For this, González points out, it will be necessary "to protect them from predators; to take care of their host plant and ensure there is a sufficient but not excessive amount; to control the eggs, and thus achieve sustainable breeding."

The immediate goal is the monarch, but "in the medium and long term," the goal is to introduce host plants of other native species from the Iberian Peninsula and create "a small outdoor butterfly park," the biologist assures.

And not only that, but also to carry out an educational task. By September, it is expected that informative signs will be installed in La Paloma Park explaining what the monarch is: a species native to America, capable of migrating thousands of kilometers from southern Canada and the northern United States to Mexico, which has several generations a year, flies all year round, and, like all butterflies, "plays a fundamental role as a pollinator, and is a bioindicator, because it is very sensitive to pollution and pesticides, so if there are butterflies, it means that there is good air quality."

For now, the bioindicator remains active in La Paloma Park, and now the aim is to enhance it. The means will be provided by the Benalmádena Council, and the knowledge and experience by the Butterfly Park.