HOUSTON (AP) -- An expert says the wet, cold winter could be why fewer monarch butterflies have been seen in Texas.
Craig Wilson, who's a butterfly expert at Texas A&M University, says illegal logging also has threatened the butterflies, which spend the winter in small reserves in Mexico.
Wilson told the Houston Chronicle that the threats have combined to reduce the monarch population by as much as half this year.
Monarch butterflies, known for their orange and black configurations, make their way north from Mexico during spring, bound for Canada.
Wilson says Texas observers, by early spring 2009, had reported about 70 sightings of monarch butterflies. He says so far this spring there have been only a dozen sightings.
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