[Pollinator] New Year’s Count Of Western Monarchs Tracks Population Decline During Overwintering Season

[Matthew Shepherd]

Today (3/3/22), we are releasing the results of the New Year's Count of
western monarchs, which serves as a follow-up to the annual Thanksgiving
Count and helps scientists better understand how the western monarch
population changes throughout the overwintering season.

The highlights are below, but you can read the full announcement on the
Xerces Society blog at
https://xerces.org/blog/new-years-count-of-western-monarchs-tracks-population-decline-during-overwintering-season


Now in its sixth year, the New Year’s Count provides additional information
on the status of the migratory monarch population in the West. While the
Thanksgiving Count remains the height of the annual monitoring efforts, the
New Year’s Count, which runs for two weeks surrounding the New Year’s
holiday, continues to gain momentum among volunteers.

This winter, Xerces scientists and volunteers recorded a 38% decline
through the observation period, within the range of a 36-49% decline
observed over the previous six years. Although it is difficult to
distinguish the exact reasons for the decline, we suspect it’s likely due
to a combination of factors: mortality from winter storms, predation, other
causes of mortality, and butterflies leaving the overwintering sites.


*Volunteers set record number of observations*This year, volunteers
surveyed 209 overwintering sites for the New Year’s Count, the most sites
monitored since its inception in 2016. Fourteen of these sites were not
surveyed for the Thanksgiving Count due to barriers such as site access and
weather, leaving 195 sites to be compared across the season.

Between December 25, 2021 and January 9, 2022, volunteers tallied a total
of 151,168 monarchs at 209 overwintering sites, revealing an average
decline of 38% among the sites surveyed during both the Thanksgiving and
New Year's counts. This year’s decline is very similar to last season. New
Year’s Count data is available online at www.westernmonarchcount.org/data.


*New Year’s Count provides clues for conservation*Data from the New Year’s
Count informs the conservation and management efforts of overwintering
sites and gives us an idea of how many butterflies remain in the West to
begin the spring breeding population. The Thanksgiving and New Year’s
Counts help to prioritize overwintering habitat that would benefit most
from active management and other protection measures. Monitoring twice
during the overwintering season also helps scientists identify how monarch
butterflies are using overwintering sites: some sites host monarchs all
winter long, while others serve as autumnal (transitional) sites.
Additionally, an extra count period during the overwintering season allows
for more opportunity to capture information on habitat health, potential
threats, and migration trends.


________

*Matthew Shepherd*
Director of Outreach & Education
*he/him/his*


*Protecting the Life that Sustains Us*

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