Monarch Monitors

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

UPDATE:

As of April 2021, Monarch Butterflies may no longer be tagged, farmed, or wild captured  in California.

While Sunnylands does not farm Monarch Butterflies, we had been participating in a tagging program as part of the Southwest Monarch Study. The new protocols have ended this practice in California, due to the extreme drop in the Monarch Butterfly population in the state, from 20,000 in 2019 to 2,000 in 2020.

Our Monarch Monitor program will continue to count and document the Monarchs through egg counts, larvae/chrysalis counts, and reporting adult sightings to the Southwest Monarch Study. In addition, we continue to grow both nectaring plants species and the larval host, desert milkweed, onsite.

Please email any inquiries on programming related to the Monarch Butterfly status, habitat building, and milkweed (Asclepius spp.) propagation to education@sunnylands.org.