The Fight to Save the Embattled Monarch Butterfly

In the depths of the Californian winter, an ember of hope has flickered for the monarch butterfly, the charismatic and beloved visitor that has seemingly been on a graceful descent into oblivion. The annual mass migration of the orange and black butterflies to the coast of California, as well as a separate odyssey the creatures take each year to the mountains of central Mexico, is among the grandest of spectacles in the natural world. Images of butterflies adorn t-shirts, pottery, and confectionery sold at tourist hotspots that have sprouted up in places where the butterflies gather in such numbers that they cause the boughs of trees to sag. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But the gatherings are becoming more spotty. In the 1980s, the monarch horde in California could be estimated to be four or five million strong. Recent years have seen a worrying slide in numbers in recent years. In 2020, a sobering nadir was reached—fewer than 2,000 monarchs were counted in sites along the California coast, barely 1% of the historical norm. The last year however, has seen something of a revival. A three-week count around Thanksgiving tallied nearly 250,000 monarch butterflies, with previous strongholds around Santa Cruz and Monterey again teeming with monarchs. It’s unclear what happened – some researchers point to a burst of favorable weather, others to problems in the count.. “We were ecstatic but also thought ‘wow what is going on?’&rdquo...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news