Natural History Wanderings

KPBS reports

The population of the endangered monarch butterfly rebounded for a second year in a row, but this winter’s punishing storms led to a nearly 60% die-off, according to data released earlier this month by the Xerces Society.

The Xerces Society’s Thanksgiving count tallied 335,470 butterflies — a sharp increase from fewer than 2,000 in 2020. Last year’s count was 247,000. This is still a drop compared to the millions in the 1980s and ’90s.

Read more at California’s punishing winter storms pummel monarch butterfly population | KPBS Public Media