Declining Number of Monarch Butterflies Alarms Conservationists

The decreasing number of monarch butterflies has alarmed conservationist groups so much that they have requested the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to add the species to its endangered species list.

The agency has promised to conduct a one-year status review and initiated a campaign involving the general public where  scientific and commercial data of the species will be collected in a 60-day period.  It will include data on the insects' biology, range and population trends habitat requirements, genetics and taxonomy, distribution patterns, population levels, life history, thermos-tolerance, and conservation methods.

According to the Center for Diversity, one of the conservation groups, the number of monarchs is dwindling due to the changing crop patters in the Midwest, the hunting ground for the monarch butterflies. Apparently, engineered crops are resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide that kills milkweed, the only food that monarch caterpillars consume.

The Center for Biological Diversity conducted a study where they found the population of monarch butterflies had declined by 90 percent in the last twenty years.  The species lost more than 165 million acres of habitat to the new crops, according to the center. The butterflies are mainly found in the United States and migrate to Canada and Mexico in the winters. Their migratory path is getting hazardous with changing environment all over.

Sarina Jepsen  of the Xerces Society, another conservation group advocating protection of the species ,  said, "We are extremely pleased that the federal agency in charge of protecting our nation's wildlife has recognized the dire situation of the monarch."

"Protection as a threatened species will enable extensive monarch habitat recovery on both public and private lands," reports Latinos Post.