Monarch butterfly numbers drop drastically at Pismo Beach

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00:00Pismo State Beach Butterfly Grove is a little emptier than in past years.

00:04Previously, there was so much more butterflies that looked like a hornet's nest.

00:08It was just a big cluster of them, just all cuddled together.

00:11But now these eucalyptus trees are mostly missing their familiar orange and black winged visitor this time of year,

00:17the Western Monarch butterfly who annually make a pit stop here while migrating south.

00:22The last count we had was 197, so this is the lowest year as far as being recorded

00:28for the population here at Pismo State Beach.

00:30It's a drastic downturn compared to last December when 16,000 butterflies were recorded in the yearly post-Thanksgiving count.

00:37We don't know why the numbers are so low this year.

00:39There's some speculation that early spring storms and some heat waves during the summer may have impacted the population numbers.

00:47So monarch butterflies are really impacted by like random events like this and their numbers can boom or bust.

00:54This year, it's a total bust and not just in Pismo Beach, but everywhere else the Western Monarchs travel.

01:00This is happening all across the overwintering sites here on the for the Western Monarch butterflies.

01:06So each site gets counted within the same time span and it's only being estimated to be maybe 7,000 this season.

01:14So that is significantly low.

01:16Similar low numbers were recorded not that long ago in 2020, just under 200, followed by a big bounce back the past three years.

01:24Still, this year's count is raising red flags.

01:27And that's what has us concerned as monarch researchers that these numbers can fluctuate so much.

01:32And the concern is that they can actually go extinct.

01:34We may not see this migratory behavior any longer.

01:37A worst case scenario for the future.

01:39But for today, the Pismo Grove is still attracting visitors as usual, but they're just not having the same experience as they've had in the past.

01:47It's a little disappointing, especially whenever I hyped it up so much for my friends to come see.

01:52It's really nice to see them up close and stuff like that.

01:54But there is a lot less butterflies, an extraordinary amount less, but it's still nice that there's still some.

02:00In Pismo Beach, I'm News Channel Reporter Dave Alley.

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