Guest essay by Kip Hansen – February 17, 2023
The Marvelous Mysterious Monarch butterfly is in the news again – some good news and some not so good news – at least, I think.
First, let me remind readers that Queen Butterfly, (Danaus plexippus plexippus)It is found widely in many parts of the world and is not in danger of extinction.
You see that there are many queen bee populations in the South Pacific and Australia, all of the United States and much of southern Canada, All of Mexico, Central America, northern coastal areas of South America, southern Spain Spain and Portugal, Atlantic islands (Madeira, Azores, Canaries) and parts of Morocco.
However, you will read (if you read any newspaper or watch any news program or any nature program) that IUCN Have “Declared the Monarch Butterfly Endangered.”
It shouldn’t shock readers here that this is Incorrect. That means, quite literally, WRONG. Wrong because the IUCN has not declared “Monarch Butterfly” as an endangered species. Confused yet?
So what’s the real deal? IUCN, in July 2022, stated “Migratory monarch butterfly now endangered“. The fact that they have declare phenomena of two migratory monarch butterfly populations in the United States and Canada, each migrating each winter to areas with milder winter conditions, will be threatened. With the simple trick of pretending or claiming that migratory populations are “subspecies”, they make the monarch butterfly appear to be threatened with extinction.
The West Migratory populations migrate to the mountains of coastal California, from Monterey Bay south to the border with Mexico. They come from as far north as southern Canada.
Although, as you can see at the bottom right, some sneak to the Mexican wintering locations of the Easterners (they do this even from Southern California).
So what is the situation with the emigration of the Western monarchy? The best data comes from Thanksgiving Counting King and Counting New Year — Thanksgiving Counting lasts from 11/12/22 – 4/12/22 and New Year Counting lasts from 12/24/22 – 1/8/23.
Here we see near-extinction migrations in 2020, with numbers so low they barely show up on the bar graph, now last winter’s counts show the Western Monarch population Overwintering has recovered to levels seen in the early 2000s. That’s good news.
The not so good news are the interlaced coastal areas of California that have suffered from recurrent winter storms (currently famous atmospheric rivers) – after the January count – and the effects of the storms on the King is unknown.
Eastern monarch butterfly populations have more spectacular migrations:
Eastern kings migrated a much longer distance than Western kings. This map also shows the percentage of kings from each region, with the highest percentage coming from the vast agricultural acreage of the Midwest.
There are concerns that bad weather and cold snaps in Texas last fall, when queen bees were on their way to their Mexican wintering grounds, may have significantly reduced their numbers. . We don’t really know yet, as the Mexican authorities are a bit secretive about the exact locations of the wintering sites and maybe a little slow given their official count, which is done in conjunction with the WWF.
Reporting from a Mexican web site, El Rosarioindicate the number may be lower this year (YouTube) compared to last year, and January’s warmer-than-normal temperatures have caused monarch butterflies to be overactive, hovering and drinking several weeks earlier than usual.
Orley “Chip” Taylor, who padrino Later King butterfly conservation, with MonarchWatch.orgquite pessimistic about the numbers in Mexico for the winter 2022-2023 and give his reasons in a Long technical post at MonarchWatch.
Estela Romero cho two eyewitness reports from Mexico, representing two of the many known nesting sites: 1) in the Sierra Chincua Reserve, in early January, “the population of the colony appeared to be smaller than it should be. the size of the colony last year.” 2) and at “El Rosario Reserve, which is often home to the largest wintering colonies, shows a nice but smaller occupation.” There are more than a dozen recognized king overwinter locations:
Mexico City can be seen on the far right. The two locations reported by Estella Romero are in the middle of the map, one on top of the other.
We won’t know the official numbers until around May when WWF coordinates with the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas of Mexico, the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the WWF Alliance-Telmex Telcel Foundation , publish the quantity (like the number of hectares occupied by all the king roosters combined). Last year, May 2022, this number increased by 35%..
Until last winter, there was hope for a long and growing recovery:
This year?we’ll have to wait and see.
Bottom line:
1. Monarch butterflies are not endangered – there are many and they live in many areas of the world. In the United States, not all monarch butterflies are migratory — many monarch butterflies live only in Southern California and the Southern United States, including Florida and Puerto Rico, continuing to breed and completely skip the migration process. .
2. Attractiveness behavioral patterns of the two subpopulations in the United States that migrate to milder climates and congregate in giant potholes during the winter that have lost vigor over the years, with fewer monarchs participating.
3. In 2020, it looks like Western Migration will end forever. But, nature, as it often happens, surprised all the apocalypse predictors and created a truly miraculous recovery – increasing from 2000 to 3000 wintering butterflies to more than 200,000 in a single day. season. That subpopulation sustained that recovery this winter and grew to more than 300,000. Chickens wintering on the California coast may have been hit hard by the storms this January.
4. Migration of Eastern monarchs is still difficult, but has improved over the past few years. This year is still a mystery, but the prognosis is not healthy.
5. You can help preserve this interesting and little-understood phenomenon by following tips to increase monarch butterflies in your area, such as: Monarch’s Joint Venture, Save our kings, Better houses and gardens.
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Author’s comments:
First, thanks to Robert Hains, who submitted the Story Tips that led to this essay.
The emigrations of the King of the United States are an amazing phenomenon (phenomenon, if you like). Read about it in my previous post here at WUWT.
You can help the monarch butterfly recover by planting native milkweed in your home garden, encourage your local Highways Departments not to mow patches of milkweed on the roadside, encourage your local Parks Department Grow native milkweed and butterfly gardens in your park.
Search and protect Monarch chrysanthemum useful as long as you follow the instructions and release the butterflies when they have appeared. This is especially great if you have children.
This is really an issue where a little effort by many people can make all the difference.
Thanks for reading.
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