Monarch butterfly numbers are better this year, at least for the population that migrates through Georgia. The bright orange and black insects have been in decline, but a survey released Wednesday by the World Wildlife Fund finds their numbers appear to be up.
The butterflies that were surveyed, which make up the eastern population of monarchs, spend their winter in colonies in Mexico, piled together in trees.
To monitor their populations, researchers track the area of forest occupied by the butterflies, rather than attempting to count insect-by-insect. This winter, according to the World Wildlife Fund, they found the monarchs occupied nearly 15 acres of forest. That’s up from a record low in the winter of 2013-14, when they were in just over 1.5 acres. Last winter the butterflies occupied more than 6 acres.
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