Monarch Population Status

20 August 2024 | Author: Chip Taylor

Tagging will tell As you may recall, I posted three reports on the development of this years' monarch population from 1March to 10 June to the Monarch Watch Blog (see below). I stopped reporting in early June due to the lack ...

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Monarch population development in 2024: Part 3

28 June 2024 | Author: Chip Taylor

The expectations were low at the beginning of this breeding season. The overwintering numbers were the second lowest in the record (0.9ha), and it was reasonable to expect low numbers of monarchs to return from Mexico in March. It was ...

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Monarch Population Dynamics: Issues of scale

28 June 2024 | Author: Chip Taylor

By Chip Taylor and John Pleasants How big is the monarch population at the end of each breeding season? How many monarchs initiate the migration and how many successfully reach the overwintering sites in Mexico? The truth is, we don’t know ...

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Monarch population development in 2024: Part 2

23 May 2024 | Author: Chip Taylor

Introduction The report that follows is a rough attempt to assess the prospects that the monarch population will recover from the historically low number of hectares recorded for all the overwintering sites last winter (0.9ha). As you may recall, in Monarch ...

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Jennie Brooks of Lawrence, Kansas: Her early contributions to monarch science

20 April 2024 | Author: Chip Taylor

by Chip Taylor, Founding Director, Monarch Watch It is easy to forget how we came to know what is known today about monarchs. Our understandings of how the world works often have long and convoluted histories that include fundamental misunderstandings, unsupported ...

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Monarch population development in 2024: Part 1

2 April 2024 | Author: Chip Taylor

As most of you reading this know, the estimate of the number of monarchs overwintering in Mexico this past winter was a mere 0.9hectares, the second lowest in the record that began in 1994. Low numbers have again triggered concerns ...

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Is the eastern monarch population continuing to decline?

29 March 2024 | Author: Chip Taylor

Introduction The question posed in the title is important. Evidence of a continuous decline could lead to regulations and restrictions in accordance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) while evidence of stable numbers would indicate that regulations are unwarranted. In fact, ...

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Monarchs now ranked as ‘endangered’ in Canada

18 January 2024 | Author: Chip Taylor

I started the year with a rant! While traveling over the holidays, I received an email from Canadian Don Davis on 26 December informing me that “Monarch butterflies are now ranked under Canada’s Species at Risk Act as "Endangered".” There was ...

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Species Status Assessment and the three r’s

13 October 2023 | Author: Chip Taylor

When species are being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), a Species Status Assessment (SSA) is usually prepared. This assessment is based on the available science, and in some cases, ...

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Why there will always be monarchs

25 August 2023 | Author: Chip Taylor

Why there will always be monarchs: Reproductive rate, replacement, resilience and extinction by Chip Taylor, Director, Monarch Watch Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) to its Red List of endangered species. The simplified ...

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