Only One Monarch Butterfly Found at Ellwood Mesa Amid Population Decline

Only One Monarch Butterfly Found at Ellwood Mesa Amid Population Decline

Biologists found just one monarch butterfly at Ellwood Mesa on Monday during the last butterfly count of the 2025-26 overwintering season.  That follows the trend of declining numbers that biologists have observed for decades. Since the 1980s, there has been a 95% decline in the western monarch population.  “It is always a treasure to see even one monarch’s bright wings fluttering by in the forest,” said Charis van der Heide, senior biologist an…