Western monarch butterflies overwintering in California dropped by 30% last year, researchers say

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Researchers say the number of western monarch butterflies overwintering in California dropped by 30% last year, likely due to how wet it was. The Xerces Society, a nonprofit conservation group, says volunteers who visited sites in California and Arizona around Thanksgiving tallied more than 230,000 butterflies, compared to 330,000 in 2022. The western monarch population has rebounded in recent years to the hundreds of thousands after it plummeted in 2020 to just 2,000 butterflies. But even though the butterfly bounced back, its numbers are still well below what they were in the 1980s. Scientists say climate change and the destruction of the western monarch’s habitat are also to blame for its low numbers.