Like all migratory animals, monarchs, of course, are influenced by weather, and one cannot draw conclusions from a two-day visit to a single spot. Yet according to the citizen-science-fueled monitoring organization Journey North, the number of overnight monarch roosts recorded east of the Rockies this fall has been low, and roosts host fewer butterflies than in previous years. “Overall the monarch numbers in this migration are far below normal, and they are late,” says Monarch Watch founder and director Chip Taylor. “The migration in the Midwest this fall has been the lowest we have seen since the start of Monarch Watch in 1992.” Anecdotal reports suggest fewer monarchs were breeding in North America this summer as well. On NWF’s Certified Wildlife Habitat Facebook page, for instance, we received messages from hundreds of worried wildlife gardeners who were seeing few, if any, monarchs on the milkweeds they grow for the butterflies. Their reports came from throughout the East and Midwest, from Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut to Ohio, Missouri and Minnesota to Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. In fact, scientists expected to see fewer monarchs this summer. Last March, researchers who conduct annual surveys of the Mexican overwintering population—the majority of monarchs east of the Rockies—reported that the total area occupied by the butterflies during winter 2012 was just 2.94 acres, a 59 percent decrease from the previous year’s results and the lowest figure tallied in two decades.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 14:14:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015