Monarch Butterfly To End Up On The Endangered List

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they may be putting the monarch butterfly under the federal protection of the Endangered Species Act. Over the next sixty days, the organization will be receiving statements from the public on the idea of the listing to determine if the protection should be classified as "endangered" or "threatened."

"The Endangered Species Act is the most powerful tool available to save North America's monarchs, so I'm really happy that these amazing butterflies are a step closer to the protection they so desperately need," said senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, Tierra Curry, in a recent statement released on the agencies proposal.

Statistics show that monarch populations have plummeted by close to 90 percent in the last two decades, which many researchers blame from loss of habitat, as well as increased use of pesticides. Others also believe that global climate change may play a role, including the insect's migration to Mexico in the winter and the summer range in the United States becoming uninhabitable for the butterflies due to increased temperatures and more severe drought and storms. 

Monarch populations have dropped from a record high of approximately 1 billion butterflies in the mid-1990s to 35 million last winter--the lowest number ever recorded. Many of the remaining populations that left Mexico are also believed to be eaten by birds, while a storm in 2002 was estimated to kill over 500 million monarchs.

Public comments regarding the monarchs being placed on the endangered species list can be found by visiting www.regulations.gov.

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