FILE - This Aug. 19, 2015, file photo, shows a monarch butterfly in Vista, Calif.
The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted to a new record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)SAN FRANCISCO – The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted precipitously to a record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday.
Other well-known locations, such as Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove and Natural Bridges State Park, only hosted a few hundred butterflies, researchers said.
Monarch butterflies lack state and federal legal protection to keep their habitat from being destroyed or degraded.