Monarch Butterfly Migration Threatened, Insect Count Drops

The World Wildlife Fund-Telcel Alliance and Mexico's National Commission for Protected Areas (CONANP) discovered through a survey that monarch butterfly migration may soon become a thing of the past. According to the findings, the number of insects arriving in Mexico has dropped significantly since 2013, with the butterflies covering just 1.65 acres of forest area-the smallest space yet. In 2012, it's estimated that they occupied around 2.94 acres.

According to National Geographic, each year, thousands of monarch butterflies travel over 2,500 miles to reach the temperate forests of Mexico to live out their lives. This is the only known butterfly to travel such vast distances.

However, several environmental factors have unfortunately played a role in its demise, including loss of habitat, agricultural practices and climate change.

Researchers carried out  weekly-surveys in 11 sanctuaries known to house the monarchs as a way to estimate part of the population size.

"The combination of these threats has led to a dramatic decline in the number of monarch butterflies arriving to Mexico to hibernate over the past decade," said Omar Vidal, WWF-Mexico Director General, according to a new release. "Twenty years after the signing of NAFTA, the monarch butterfly migration - a symbol of cooperation between our three countries - is in grave danger."

"The butterfly as a species isn't in danger of extinction," Vidal added, according to Washington Post. "What is in danger of disappearing . . . is the migration of the monarch from Canada through the United States to Mexico."

Fortunately, next month, President Obama is scheduled to make a stop in at the Mexican city of Toluca, not far from the monarch preserve, and meet with Mexican and Canadian counterparts. Vidal said he is hoping they can make a plan to protect the monarch as a collaboration between Mexico, Canada and the United States.