Western monarch has declined from several million monarchs in the 1980s to less than 30,000 butterflies. The situation is alarming. We need greater knowledge of western monarch biology to develop viable conservation strategies. A significant knowledge gap is early spring. We know that migratory western monarchs spend the winter months (November to February) in groves along the California Coast, and start breeding in central California in May. However, we have sparse recent data on the migratory population in February, March and April. To fill this knowledge gap, we ran a social media and outreach campaign to ask residents of California to report sightings of western monarch in early spring, The Western Monarch Mystery Challenge.
Results/Conclusions
The Western Monarch Mystery Challenge ran from Feb. 14 – April 22, 2020. The campaign used social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) as well as traditional media (TV, radio and newspaper) and outreach (public lectures, fairs and community events) to engage the public. The community was asked to take a picture of a monarch if observed, then upload sightings to iNaturalist or to report sightings to MonarchMystery@wsu.edu. Photo entries to date indicate that many monarchs are nectaring in neighborhood parks and gardens in early spring, especially near the coast. In addition, several photos have been submitted with monarchs basking on tropical milkweed in backyard gardens – some clear visual signs of disease such as OE. The response to the campaign was extremely positive. The Western Monarch Mystery Challenge provided many opportunities to engage the community and to educate the public about the use of science to conserve the wild population of migratory monarchs in the west as well as broad landscape-level conservation for at-risk insects.
(*co-presented by Lilianne de la Esperialla and Christopher Jason)