Professor: ... ... Millions of monarchs from all over the U.S. and southern Canada fly south every year in late summer. The monarch is the only butterfly that returns to a specific site year after year. Unfortunately, the herbicides used on the milkweed in the Great Plains are taking a toll on monarchs, and fewer of them are reaching their winter grounds in Mexico. (Hello, everybody! What does "winter grounds" mean in this context? Is "winter grounds" a phrase, does it have a specific meaning? Or actually, "winter grounds" is just used as its literal meaning here - "and fewer of them are reaching grounds in winter in Mexico" ? What is your opinion?) Another important pollinator is the long-nosed bat. These amazing animals feed on cactus flowers. What they do is, they lap up the nectar at the bottom of the flower, and then when the bat flies off to another cactus, the pollen stuck to its head is transferred to that plant's flower. But the long-nosed bat is having a tought time, too. Some desert ranchers mistake them for vampire bats, and they've tried to poison them, or dynamite the caves where they roost.
Thanks for your help.
:-)
