The number of monarch butterflies spending the winter in the western United States dropped dramatically this year even as federal officials move to extend protections for the beloved pollinator.

Researchers say that the population of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has rebounded for a second year in a row.

The western monarch butterfly population wintering along California's coast remained critically low for the second year in a row, a count by an environmental group released Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, showed. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The western monarch butterfly population wintering along California's coast remains critically low for the second year in a row, a count by an environmental group released Thursday showed. “We had hoped that the western monarch population would have rebounded at least modestly, but unfortunately it has not,” said Emma Pelton, a monarch conservation expert with the Xerces Society. By comparison, about 4.5 million monarch butterflies wintered in forested groves along the California coast in the 1980s. Mexican officials said last year the butterfly population wintering there was rebounding but they have not yet released this year's count.