Monarch Butterfly (Photo credit: dave and rose)
I just read this disturbing article about the crash in the Monarch butterfly population this year:
The Year the Monarch Didn’t Appear – NYTimes.com
In searching for regular population numbers, I also came across this one:
Monarch butterfly population crashes in 2013 – Ottawa Citizen
Apparently, the typical population is around 350 million. Of course, like many wild populations, it can fluctuate widely from year to year.
Last year, it was 60 million, a record low for the twenty years or so records have been kept. A big drop, but one it could easily bounce back from.
So far this year, the tally is 3 million! Not 30, 3. A drop to less than 1% of the typical population, and only 5% of last year’s record low.
That’s not fluctuation. That’s an unmitigated disaster. Extinction could be around the corner.
The Wikipedia article has some discussion of the converging factors threatening the Monarchs.
Just one more sign of the serious trouble our planet is in.
Please let me know what you think.
Related articles
- The year the Monarch didn’t appear (sott.net)
- First Bees, Now Monarch Butterflies (justinyeater.wordpress.com)
- Monarch Butterflies (johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com)
- Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Pundits at the blackboard edition (dailykos.com)
- The continuing collapse of monarch butterfly populations (blogs.courier-journal.com)
- Monarch Butterflies are just about gone (thewildlifenews.com)
- Far fewer monarch butterflies expected to migrate to Mexico (abqjournal.com)
- Monarch Butterflies (kpoindexter.wordpress.com)
- Less Monarch Butterflies Migrating to Mexico, Arriving Later (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
R. E. Hunter
