Monarchs may be doing better than thought, study suggests
After sifting through 25 years of data, a team of scientists came to a surprising conclusion – the monarch butterfly population appears to be growing.
In recent years, winter populations have declined, likely due to pesticide use and widespread loss of butterfly vegetation, known as milkweed, during the animals’ summer in Canada and the US.
However, populations of the eastern butterfly in North America differ from their relatives because each year they begin the great migration from the summer fields of Canada to the forests of southwestern Mexico, where they spend the winter. (Read about the discovery of the monarchs’ winter home in the 1976 issue of National Geographic magazine.)
The study analyzed data collected over decades by citizen scientists in the United States and observed butterflies of all species, not just monarchs. Bill Snyder, a UGA professor, said the data shows that about two-thirds of North American butterflies are doing worse than monarchs.
Snyder also said the monarch butterfly is important to monitor because of its popularity.
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