On brink of extinction, monarch butterfly numbers increase for second year
Climbing back from the brink of extinction, the population of Western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast rose for the second ...
Climbing back from the brink of extinction, the population of Western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast rose for the second year in a row, according to data released Tuesday, Jan. 31. A three-week count in November and December 2022, conducted over 272 sites in coastal California by the Portland-based Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, tallied 335,479 of the orange-and-black iconic butterflies, an increase of 36% over the 247,237 counted the previous year. Home gardeners, trying to save the monarch butterfly, are buying native milkweed, the only plant the butterflies lay eggs on.