14 Could 2025
Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are migrating north and, fortunately, the primary few have arrived in Pennsylvania throughout the previous two weeks.
As of this morning there are 11 monarch butterfly sightings on Journey North’s 2025 spring migration map. Listed below are six of the 11 together with the very first one on 30 April in Philadelphia.
- Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, 4/30/2025
- Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, 5/5/2025
- McKees Rocks, Allegheny County, 5/10/2025
- Pennsylvania Furnace, Centre County, 5/10/2025
- Gettysburg, Adams County, 5/11/2025
- York, York County, 5/12/2025
These sightings have been gleaned from the Journey North Monarch (Grownup) First Sighting map, proven under in a screenshot frozen in time on 14 Could 2025.
Ideally we’ll see a handful extra monarchs this yr in comparison with final as a result of …
In March the World Wildlife Fund reported that December 2024’s rely of japanese monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico confirmed the japanese inhabitants had almost doubled for the reason that prior yr. That is excellent news within the very quick time period however is tempered by a sober have a look at World Wildlife Fund’s Annual Depend graph, embedded under. (Purposely small so that you just click on right here to see the total dimension graph at WWF.)
The graph exhibits wholesome massive populations from 1993-1994 by way of 2003-2004, then acreage drops off to the worst yr of only one.66 acres (in purple) in 2013-2014.
This yr’s 4.42 acres (2024-2025) is almost twice final yr’s 2.22 however each are nonetheless among the many 5 lowest ranges in 32 years. There’s lots of work to do each right here and in Mexico to proceed the monarchs’ turnaround. (*)
In the meantime, watch monarch butterfly migration on the Journey North 2025 monarch map. Click on the Play button on the map’s management panel (screenshot under) to see their progress.
Report those you see to place them on the map.
(*)For data on the monarchs’ plight see July 2024’s weblog: Have You Seen Any Monarchs This Yr? and Christine Rickabaugh’s remark concerning the scenario in Mexico.)
