Every year, more and more migratory monarch butterflies are dying due to climate change and the negative impact of humans. Thousands of monarch butterflies migrate across North America to reach better climates for summer or winter every year. However, the natural habitat of these butterflies is slowly being destroyed due to climate change and other factors, causing monarch butterflies to decline rapidly in population. 

The migratory monarch butterfly flies across North America to wait out the cold seasons of winter. The butterflies travel thousands of miles for one migration. After they arrive, the butterflies reproduce and die, and the next generation continues the cycle. While the migratory monarch butterflies are in the larvae stage, and they feed on milkweed, so having an area to migrate to with milkweed is crucial to the butterflies survival.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of things threatening the migratory monarch butterflies population, causing the International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources to Red List the species. In California, the areas where the migratory monarch butterflies fly to are being cleared out so there is space for farming and new housing for people. Since the butterflies no longer have this area to reproduce, the butterflies are dying before there are new butterflies to continue adding to the population. 

In addition to deforestation, the monarchs are being threatened by lack of milkweed. Milkweed is dying from people spraying pesticides and warm temperatures and droughts caused by climate change, which result in wildfires. Without milkweed for the larvae of the monarchs to eat, the butterflies are dying out very quickly.

These things are threatening the migratory monarch butterflies population all over North America, specifically in the western regions of North America 99.9% of the monarch butterflies’ populations died out over the past thirty-five years. Over those years, the population went from about ten million butterflies to 1,900. On the east side of North America, the population went down by 84% in those thirty-five years. These numbers have become very worrying to researchers. With the small amount of butterflies still alive and the little amount of food and land for them to migrate to, many people are worried the butterflies might go extinct soon.

“Migratory Monarch Butterflies Now Endangered – IUCN Red List” IUCN. International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 21 July 2023, https://www.iucn.org/press-release/202207/migratory-monarch-butterfly-now-endangered-iucn-red-list.