Endangered monarch butterflies boom amid wet hot Canadian summer on the Prairies

By Bryce Hoye – CBC News

MaryAnn Lepp has never seen so many monarchs go through their magical metamorphosis in her garden — counting 20 caterpillars munching on her swamp milkweed in a single day this week.

She’s among hundreds of Canadian monarch enthusiasts witnessing an apparent boom emerge in backyard milkweed patches flourishing amid wet and hot conditions on parts of the Prairie this summer.

“This is chrysalis No. 2 … I’m so excited,” Lepp says, scanning her garden for monarch cocoons in La Broquerie, about 60 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.