Monarch Butterflies , Are Now Endangered.<br />NPR reports that on July 21, scientists put the beloved insect on the endangered list.<br />It's just a devastating decline. This is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the world, Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University <br />who was not involved in the new listing, via CNN.<br />Migrating monarch butterflies were added as "endangered" to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's "red list" for the first time.<br />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.<br />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 <br />at Michigan State University, via CNN.<br />NPR reports that North American <br />monarch butterflies take part in the <br />longest migration of any insect.<br />It's a true spectacle <br />and incites such awe, Anna Walker, a conservation biologist at New Mexico BioPark Society, who was involved in determining the new listing, via CNN.<br />Emma Pelton, of the nonprofit Xerces Society, said the butterflies are put at risk due to loss of habitat, herbicides, pesticides and climate change. .<br />Pelton says, "There are things people can <br />do to help," such as planting milkweed, <br />which caterpillars depend on. .<br />NPR reports that Central and South American nonmigratory monarch butterflies were <br />not deemed endangered.
