Strange Sounds There were more than 1.2 million monarch butterflies wintering in CA in 1997.
Now, the total number of monarchs observed this year during The Xerces Society Thanksgiving count was 29,418. Terrifying!
There is something really bad going on with the monarch butterflies wintering in California. In 1997 there were more than 1.2 million monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast. Now, according to the latest Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count by The Xerces Society, this number has plummeted to 29,418, slightly higher than the 2018-2019 count with its all-time low of 27,218.
Monarch butterflies in the West have been in decline because of:
- loss of habitat, including destruction of their California wintering sites
- loss of milkweed for caterpillars
- loss of flowering resources to fuel migration