Monarch Butterfly is closer to extinction

Monarch Butterfly is closer to extinction

The Gulf Observer: The migratory monarch butterfly fluttered its orange-and-black wings closer to extinction joining for the first time an alarming “red list” of endangered creatures.

The dire classification by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature means the beloved insect’s population has declined so dramatically, it is now only two steps away from vanishing entirely.

At greatest risk are the western monarch butterflies, whose numbers have plummeted by an estimated 99.9 percent since the 1980s, from 10 million to as few as 1,914 this year.

“It is difficult to watch monarch butterflies and their extraordinary migration teeter on the edge of collapse, but there are signs of hope,” Anna Walker, who led IUCN’s monarch butterfly assessment, said in a statement.

A Monarch Butterfly

Pesticides and herbicides used in agriculture are also to blame, as they kill butterflies and milkweed, the only plant that larvae can eat.

Millions of butterflies have also been killed by severe weather and the rise of catastrophic wildfires and temperature extremes as climate change affects habitats where the insects live.

“It’s been so sad to watch their numbers decline so much, so anything that might help them makes me happy, and I think that this designation might help them,” UW-Madison Professor Karen Oberhauser told The New York Times.