The number of Western monarch butterflies overwintering in California rebounded to more than 247,000 a year after fewer than 2,000 appeared, but the tally remained far below the millions that were seen in the 1980s, leaders of an annual count said Tuesday.
“It will take multiple more years to understand if this is the beginning of a trend or just a blip,” she said in an online news conference.Western monarchs, the population found west of the Rockies, overwinter in groves along the Pacific coast from Northern California’s Mendocino County south to the northern edge of Baja California, as well as in a few inland locations. Monarchs east of the Rockies migrate deep into Mexico for winter.
Factors could include good weather, the amount of milkweed the monarchs rely on and some interchange between the Western and Eastern populations, but the monarchs have a complex migratory cycle with multiple generations over a complex landscape, she said.
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