Beloved monarch butterflies are officially on the endangered species list

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) on a milkweed plant flower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on July 08, 2022. (Photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images) WASHINGTON - The monarch butterfly fluttered a step closer to extinction Thursday, as scientists put the iconic orange-and-black insect on the endangered list because of its fast dwindling numbers."It’s just a devastating decline," said Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University who was not involved in the new listing. "This is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the world."The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its "red list" of threatened species and categorized it as "endangered" — two steps from extinct.The group estimates that the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined between 22% and 72% over 10 years, depending on the measurement method."What we’re worried about is the rate of decline," said Nick Haddad, a conservation biologist at Michigan State University. "It’s very easy to imagine how very quickly this butterfly could become even more imperiled."Haddad, who was not directly involved in the listing, estimates that the population of monarch butterflies he studies in the eastern United States has declined between 85% and 95% since the 1990s.In North America, millions of monarch butterflies undertake the longest migration of any insect species known to science.After wintering in the mountains of central Mexico, the butterflies migrate to the north, breeding multiple generations along the way for thousands of miles.