The estimates of the monarch butterfly overwintering population were announced today (Wed. Jan. 30th 2019) by WWF Mexico. The butterflies are so dense at their dozen or so mountain-top clustering sites that overwintering butterflies cannot be counted individually. Instead, the area of forest that is densely coated with butterflies (at about 5,000 butterflies per square meter looking up into the canopy) is estimated as a measure of monarch abundance. Butterflies arrive to Mexico around the day of dead in November and stay until March each year as part of their annual migratory cycle. Butterflies have been declining over the past three decades, and the annual announcement is a welcome addition to our understanding of the long-term dynamics of our beloved monarch.

This winter season (2018-2019), there were approximately 6.05 hectares (nearly 15 acres) of forest occupied with dense monarchs in the Mexican highlands (somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 million overwintering butterflies). The monarchs end up congregating in a tiny area, with the bulk of the butterflies concentrated among twelve mountain massifs (clusters of peaks) within three hundred square miles (eight hundred square kilometers), an area smaller than New York City. In other words, most of the monarchs from eastern North America, from Maine to Saskatchewan, and south to Texas, probably covering two million square miles, funnel down and overwinter in a location 0.015 percent the area that they occupy in the summer! Unbelievable. This year’s estimate is well over double compared to last year, great news for monarchs!

Where does this leave us? The good news is that this year’s population was huge in the summer months throughout the USA and Canada, and the resulting migration and overwintering population in Mexico was the highest in 12 years, higher than predicted by many. The season started with a very early spring and a far reaching northern migration. As I have previously argued, there is often a disconnect between summer breeding populations of monarchs and the overwintering population — that seems to not be the case this past year.

With 26 years of data, there are various ways to plot and assess the trends. Below I have plotted four year averages for seven periods working backwards (so the first average on the left is only for 2 years). Any way you slice it, the trend has been negative, and the population is not what it was. Nonetheless, the extreme downward trend seems to have bumped up in the last period of four years. Is this the new norm, a winter population hovering between two and five hectares? How dangerously low are these numbers? And what can be done to continue to reverse the trend and buffer the population? I have recently written more about this issue in a scientific article as a well as my book.

For now, let’s celebrate. The government is open, and thus the Fish and Wildlife Service will be deciding on the petition to list monarchs as threatened under the Endangered Species Act this summer. Looking forward to seeing butterflies and their caterpillars once Ithaca, NY thaws in spring.