Monarch Butterflies , Are Now Endangered.
NPR reports that on July 21, scientists put the beloved insect on the endangered list.
It's just a devastating decline.
This is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the world, Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University who was not involved in the new listing, via CNN.
Migrating monarch butterflies were added as "endangered" to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's "red list" for the first time.
Depending on the method of measurement, the international organization estimates that monarch populations have dropped between 22% and 72% in North America over a decade.
What we're worried about is the rate of decline.
It's very easy to imagine how very quickly this butterfly could become even more imperiled, Nick Haddad, a conservation biologist at Michigan State University, via CNN.
NPR reports that North American monarch butterflies take part in the longest migration of any insect.
It's a true spectacle and incites such awe, Anna Walker, a conservation biologist at New Mexico BioPark Society, who was involved in determining the new listing, via CNN.
Emma Pelton, of the nonprofit Xerces Society, said the butterflies are put at risk due to loss of habitat, herbicides, pesticides and climate change.
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Pelton says, "There are things people can do to help," such as planting milkweed, which caterpillars depend on.
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NPR reports that Central and South American nonmigratory monarch butterflies were not deemed endangered.
