A new study that suggests monarch butterflies fostered from the wild or cultivated by commercial breeders have trouble migrating and can exhibit unusual genetic traits hit the monarch butterfly community this week. The reaction has been intense. “Boy, you gotta … Read More
Three of 690 commercially bred monarch butterflies tagged and released at San Antonio’s 2018 Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival were recovered in Mexico, citizen science organization Monarch Watch announced this week. Monarch Watch founder Chip Taylor, who oversees the citizen science … Read More
South Texas is seeing an abundance of monarch butterfly caterpillars in recent weeks. Resulting chrysalises and butterflies suggest a robust 2019 monarch butterfly season as a bounty of wildflowers awaits. Monarchs typically leave their overwintering roosts in the Mexican mountains … Read More
The population of monarch butterflies that overwinter in Mexico has jumped more than 144% over last year, Mexican officials announced today. The butterflies occupied 6.05 hectares (about 15 acres) of the high altitude Mexican forests this year, up from 2.48 hectares (about … Read More
When it comes to the 2019 monarch butterfly population, the numbers suggest catastrophe in California and a rebound in Mexico. On the west coast, the news is dismal. The western population of monarch butterflies, which travel up and down the … Read More
Migrating monarch butterflies finally made it to the Mexican mountains last week–late, but intact. For months, scientists and citizen scientists have been predicting the largest migration in a decade, but the insects have taken their time arriving at their winter … Read More
Mother Nature took a short break from the rainiest autumn in memory to celebrate the third annual Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival on Sunday. The three-day Festival rallied as the clouds parted, the sun shone and temperatures hovered in the … Read More
Forest ecologist and National Wildlife Federation Monarch Outreach Coordinator Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñòn will trek from Austin to San Antonio October 19 to participate as a panelist in Butterflies without Borders: the Monarch Migration and our Changing Climate. The event will be presented … Read More
The 2018 monarch butterfly migration is off to a great start. Members of the DPLEX, an email listserv and online community that includes hundreds of monarch butterfly aficionados throughout Canada and the U.S., have begun the annual frenetic email exchange launched by … Read More
The sensory overload of walking into a forest that holds a billion Monarchs. That’s what biologist Karen Oberhauser, Ph.D, remembers most vividly from her first trip to the monarch butterfly roosting sites in the Mexican mountains more than 20 years … Read More