The Remaining 1% Of Monarch Butterflies Before They Are Totally And Irreversibly Extinct

Source: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

According to a survey that was conducted by The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the monarch butterfly is facing a sharp population decline that could soon lead to it’s extinction.

The monarch butterfly is considered the “king’ of all butterflies due to its extravagant beauty, hence the name “monarch.” The most popular among the North American butterflies, the majestic black-and-orange invertebrate is known for it’s yearly mass migration of up to 3,000 miles from the Baja California Peninsula to California’s Central Coast every winter, beautifully covering all the trees along their path.


Source: http://www.sciencemag.org/

In 1980, it’s population was recorded to be about 4.5 million and by the mid-2000’s, there were barely 100,000 remaining. In 2018, the number of monarch butterflies fell down to only 28,249 which makes a 99.4 percent decline in less than 40 years.

“It’s mind-boggling. We’re now down below 1 percent of the historic population,” Says Emma Pelton, a Xerces Society Conservation biologist.

A variety of factors could be involved to cause of the monarch butterfly’s near extinction. One could have a co-relation to the lessening of other insects such as bees and other bird species: “It is very apt to say this is a canary in a coal mine for a lot of our native pollinators … There’s a tight link in a loss of insects and our songbirds, which rely on insects. We have declines in songbirds, and I think that links directly to declines in insects,” says Pelton. Another factor could be due to a number of human economic activities such as urbanization and illegal logging which lessens the butterflies’ habitat, to pesticides widely used on corn and soybean crops.


Source: https://media3.s-nbcnews.com/

Because of these chain of events, an “extinction vortex” has occurred wherein the process of extinction would be near unstoppable since the species wont be able to reproduce and raise their numbers the natural way.

The mass disappearance of the monarch butterfly and other endangered species is a wake up call of our infinitesimal time remaining to positively shift the direction of the ecological environment for a massive improvement in the near future, in order to help mother nature and all the other living species in this earth.

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