Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico rebound this year

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The number of monarch butterflies wintering in the mountains west of Mexico City rebounded this year, doubling the area they covered in 2024 despite the stresses of climate change, experts said Thursday.

The annual butterfly count doesn’t calculate the individual number of butterflies, but rather the number of acres they cover as they gather on tree branches in the mountain pine and fir forests. Monarchs from east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada overwinter there.

Mexico’s Commission for National Protected Areas (CONANP) said that this year, butterflies covered 4.4 acres (1.79 hectares) compared to only 2.2 acres (0.9 hectares) the year before. Last year’s figure represented a 59% drop from 2023, the second lowest level since record keeping began.

After wintering in Mexico, the butterflies fly north, breeding multiple generations along the way for thousands of miles. The offspring that reach southern Canada begin the trip back to Mexico at the end of summer.

Gloria Tavera Alonso, the Mexican agency’s director general of conservation, said the improved numbers owed to better climatic factors and humidity. Drought along the butterflies’ migratory route had been listed as a factor in last year’s decline.

Tavera also credited ongoing efforts to increase the number of plants the butterflies rely on for sustenance and reproduction along their flyway.