Western Monarch Butterfly

March 16, 2020

This document The Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan is intended to articulate and attain WAFWAs vision to identify and promote a shared set of coordinated ecosystem-based conservation strategies across all partner agencies to achieve the vision of a viable western monarch population. Western Monarch Advocates are fighting to save them.

Western Monarch Call To Action Xerces Society

Each spring the butterflies fan out across the West to lay their eggs on milkweed and drink nectar from flowers in Arizona.

Western monarch butterfly. Under 2000 monarchs were counted at both Thanksgiving and New Years across 400 overwintering sites in central coast California. Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter returning to the same places and even the same trees where they cluster to keep warm. The monarch butterfly is one of the most easily recognized and frequently studied insects in the world and has recently come into the spotlight of public attention and conservation concern because of declining numbers of individuals associated with both the eastern and western migrations.

This project is part of a collaborative effort to map and better understand monarch butterflies and their host plants across the Western US. Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper This project is part of a collaborative effort to map and better understand monarch butterflies and their host plants across the Western US. The Western Monarch Butterfly in crisis.

Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Data compiled through this project will improve our understanding of the distribution and phenology of monarchs and milkweeds identify important breeding areas and help us. Western Monarch butterfly abundance at 149 overwintering sites in California 2017-2021.

Put into perspective monarch counts. The western monarch butterfly relies on the California landscape for both breeding and overwintering habitat. Visit their farm to learn more about monarchs.

Butterfly Farms is a California nonprofit 501c3 dedicated to education conservation and research of our important pollinators. Historically western monarchs have made a spectacular annual migration to overwinter in forested groves along the coast of California. The Western Monarch population is now less than 1 of what it was in the 1980s.

The western monarch butterfly was never as common as its eastern counterpart but it has now plunged from millions to a few thousand. Unlike the main eastern population of monarch butterflies that migrates to central Mexico to overwinter in huge concentrated clusters the western population migrates to the coast of California. February 2 2018An annual census of monarch butterflies overwintering along Californias coast reveals that populations in western North America are at their lowest point in five years despite.

The Beautiful Monarch. As you may know by now the Western Monarch Butterfly migration collapsed this year. These critically low numbers follow two years with fewer than 30000 butterfliesthe previous record lows indicating that the western monarch butterfly migration is nearing collapse.

Photo courtesy of USFWS Southwest Region via Creative Commons. Western Monarch Butterflies Continue to Decline Annual census of monarchs overwintering on the California coast reveals the lowest number of butterflies in recent years. They study the host and nectar plant relationships of pollinators using the Western Monarch Butterfly as our model.

Historically the larger eastern migration has received the most scientific attention but this has been. There may be fewer than 2000 western monarch butterflies left on the planet 1914 to be specific were counted in the most recent overwintering survey according to the Center for Biological DiversityThats a 999 reduction since the 1980s. The western monarch Danaus plexippus spends its spring and summer west of the Rocky Mountain ranges.

In the fall it migrates to the California coastline from Mendocino to Baja where it seeks moderate temperatures and protection from storms by clustering in tree groves. Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter returning to the same places and even the same trees where they cluster to keep warm. Monarch butterfly populations are endangered to the point that the 12 million Western monarchs counted in 1997 plummeted to fewer than 2000.

20 years ago 2 to 4 million 5 years ago 150000 2019 30000 2020 under 2000. Join us in this crucial conservation effort. A monarch butterfly at Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz Calif.

Data compiled through this project will improve our understanding of the distribution and phenology of monarchs and milkweeds identify important breeding areas and help us better understand monarch conservation needs. In California we are fortunate to host the western monarch butterfly.

Still No Protection In Sight For The Western Monarch Butterfly Despite 99 Decline In Population Living