After the highest initial count in two decades around Thanksgiving, atmospheric river-fueled storms led to the loss of the iconic western monarch butterflies.
, so we are lucky these storms occurred in a relatively good year," said Pelton of the tragedy after a promising initial count. "We don’t want to count on luck alone to ensure the survival of the western monarch migration."
The population is slowly rebounding after a devastating few years. The blue line shows that Xerces is increasing the number of sites counted each year. "This is great compared to three years ago. This is not great compared to three decades ago," Pelton said. "We've seen such wild swings in the population over the last five, ten years that I really don't think two good years in a row is an indication of a trend.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed migratory monarchs as "endangered," but the butterflies have not been listed in the Endangered Species Act.Monarch butterflies, dozens of other species closer to endangered species protections Noah Greenwald, Endangered Species Director at Center for Biological Diversity, talks about the fight to protect monarch butterflies and other species.After spending breeding season to the north and east, the monarchs return to mainly coastal California when the weather gets cold from November to February. Coastal forests offer food of winter flower nectar.
Western monarch butterflies west of the Rocky Mountains migrate to the California coast for winter. Eastern monarchs migrate to Mexico.
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