Words by Tess Becker
The monarch butterfly is one of the most well-known insects in the world. While it was struggling over the past decade or so due to habitat loss, the butterfly has bounced back and bounced back hard – growing on last year’s success.
The butterfly had a surprising rebound in 2021 thanks to conservation efforts but some thought it may have been a fluke thanks to other surrounding trends.
Was it a fluke?!
It wasn't a fluke: 2022 saw a consecutive year of growing numbers of monarchs.
Volunteers tallied 335,479 individual monarchs on their yearly migration; larger than 2021’s 250,000 and much, much larger than the depressing 2,000 in 2020.
“We can all celebrate this tally,” says Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society which leads the western monarch count. “A second year in a row of relatively good numbers gives us hope.”
This is a trend in the right direction. To find out more about the society supporting these conservation efforts, visit Xerces Society's website.
