A Hermosa Beach resident took it upon himself to plant milkweed in an area on the public greenbelt and now hundreds of monarch butterflies are perched up in the trees at the corner of Valley and Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach on Wednesday, January 5, 2022. Photo Credit: Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images

Animals USA17. February 2022

These Butterflies Went from Historic Low to a Surprising High – in a Single Year!

The number of monarch butterflies overwintering in California, the United States, increased a whopping hundredfold and more as efforts are deployed to preserve the migrating insect population.

“We’re ecstatic with the results and hope this trend continues,” says Emma Pelton, the western monarch lead at Xerces Society that manages the annual Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count.

In 2020, some 2,000 monarch butterflies – or Danaus plexippus – overwintered in California, and in 2021, more than 247,000 orange-winged creatures made the trip, possibly due to climate and food resource improvements. This year, in order to make the final count, 283 sites were visited by volunteers and scientists. In Santa Barbara County alone, there were 95,000 monarchs, with 25,000 of them being on one private property. Though the graceful insect does not fall into the endangered species category, its survival still requires attention, and efforts are made to preserve its habitat. In 2020, a collective of private landowners and some 45 transportation and energy companies have vowed to protect the monarch’s wintering habitat.

Source:
Mongabay

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