Monarch Butterfly is already considered an endangered species

Published July 25th, 2022

IT’S OFFICIAL! This Thursday, July 21, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) included the monarch butterfly in the “red list” of endangered species in the world.

Why? Because they are assured that their habitat is being destroyed and because of the climate change that has occurred in the last years, which has generated that the places where they rest, no longer have the ideal conditions to shelter them.

The migratory monarch butterfly is a subspecies of the monarch butterfly; its main difference is that the migratory butterfly travels 4,000 kilometers each year (from Canada or the United States to Mexico).

According to the National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Informatics (Inegi), monarch butterflies travel approximately 120 kilometers per day for 33 days, making this insect species one of the most resistant, since it also lives up to nine months, that is, 12 times longer than any other butterfly species.

“Today’s Red List update highlights the fragility of nature’s wonders, such as the unique spectacle of monarch butterflies migrating thousands of miles,” said Dr. Bruno Oberle, IUCN Director General.

The main threats to this species have been logging, deforestation, the use of pesticides and herbicides on milkweed, the plant where monarch butterflies lay their eggs and larvae feed, as well as climate change.

This situation has caused the population of the migratory monarch butterfly to decrease between 22% and 72% in the last decade.