{"id":38608,"date":"2022-09-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monarch-butterfly-placed-on-international-endangered-species-list-but-might-it-be-making-a-comeback\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:45:32","slug":"monarch-butterfly-placed-on-international-endangered-species-list-but-might-it-be-making-a-comeba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monarch-butterfly-placed-on-international-endangered-species-list-but-might-it-be-making-a-comeba\/","title":{"rendered":"Monarch butterfly placed on international endangered species list, but might it be making a comeback?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A monarch butterfly makes a stop on a butterfly bush in a flower garden north of Durango on Aug. 25. Monarchs that overwinter in California and migrate to Colorado for the summer increased from a population of just 2,000 in 2020 to 200,000 in 2021, according to data from the Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The International Union for Conservation of Nature placed the monarch butterfly on its Red List of Threatened Species as endangered in July, but despite decades of declining numbers, the delicate insect\u2019s population rebounded in 2021.<\/p>\n

Invertebrates aren\u2019t often the first animals to garner people\u2019s sympathy when their populations dwindle, but conservation awareness of pollinators is gaining mainstream popularity. In Colorado, the summer destination of two monarch populations\u2019 migration routes, people may be latching onto the idea of growing native plants over grass lawns, avoiding pesticides and supporting native birds and invertebrates.<\/p>\n

The monarch butterfly, or Danaus plexippus, is a charismatic poster child of sorts for pollinating invertebrates, said Amanda Kuenzi, community science director at Mountain Studies Institute and chairwoman for the southwest chapter of the Colorado Native Plants Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re big and beautiful and recognizable. But what it really comes down to is that we are in a pollinator crisis globally,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The monarch butterfly population has been in steep decline for decades, falling as much as 90% in the last 30 to 40 years, she said. The IUCN in Switzerland attributed its endangered designation of the monarch butterfly to habitat destruction and climate change.<\/p>\n

The monarch is not currently listed as an endangered species according to the United States Endangered Species Act \u2013 meaning it doesn\u2019t qualify it for federal protection or funding \u2013 but it is scheduled to be reassessed in 2024 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that \u201clisting the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act is warranted but precluded,\u201d according to the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver.<\/p>\n

Monarchs that overwinter in California and migrate to Colorado for the summer increased from a population of just 2,000 in 2020 to 200,000 in 2021, according to data from the Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network organized by the Butterfly Pavilion.<\/p>\n

Shiran Hershcovich, lepidopterist at the Butterfly Pavilion, said it is too early to say whether the monarch population has caught a break, and although the jump in population size recorded last year is exciting, its cause remains a puzzle to scientists.<\/p>\n

\u201cBooms and busts are not uncommon in the invertebrate world,\u201d she said. \u201cMany insect species will have big kinds of cycles in their populations. But not as dramatic as what we have seen with the monarch last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rise in population size hasn\u2019t returned the monarch butterfly to its former numbers, but Hershcovich considers the development a hopeful sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very interested in what the data will show this year. In Colorado, we reported a 180% increase in monarch sightings. Which is consistent with reports from across the country, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A monarch butterfly crawls on a soft milkweed bloom while feeding on a ranch north of Durango in 2018. Milkweed attracts monarch butterflies. Researchers are working to get a better understanding of the migratory habits of monarch butterflies to keep the species from going extinct. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Dangers and boons for butterflies<\/div>\n

Scientists have several leading theories as to how the monarchs might be making a comeback.<\/p>\n

For starters, environmental pressures such as pollution on native ecosystems and environments could have been reduced by slowed human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Another theory is that Colorado\u2019s fire season started late this year and the state received a healthy amount of moisture, at least by milkweed standards. Milkweed is a perennial flowering plant that monarch larvae, or caterpillars, almost exclusively feed on, Hershcovich said. And if it\u2019s burned to ash, it can\u2019t be eaten by butterfly larvae.<\/p>\n

The smoke caused by wildfires can also threaten monarch butterflies.<\/p>\n

\u201cButterflies are really sensitive to environmental cues. So fire seasons can also be really difficult for butterfly populations,\u201d she said. \u201cButterflies also sense the world differently than we do. So they can pick up a lot of chemical cues from the environment that us humans are not as sensitive to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heavy smoke can upset or confuse a butterfly\u2019s senses, so scientists theorize wildfires could lead to drastic effects on a species\u2019 population.<\/p>\n

Milkweed is also a riparian species, meaning it requires a lot of moisture to grow and thrive, Hershcovich said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaterpillars are often very, very picky and will only eat one very specific plant or one very specific group of plants, like is the case of monarchs and milkweed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

If milkweed isn\u2019t present in a monarch\u2019s environment, the butterfly won\u2019t bother to lay eggs because the next generation won\u2019t be successful.<\/p>\n

But Hershcovich said humans are also doing their part to help the monarch population.<\/p>\n

\u201cPollinators in general are kind of having a buzz at the moment,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been in the spotlight a lot more. There\u2019s been a lot more advocacy for pollinator health. So there\u2019s been a lot more people involved than ever in invertebrate conservation and monarch conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

People have taken to their own backyards to support monarchs and other pollinators by planting milkweed and other native flowering plants, she said.<\/p>\n

But, she warned, it\u2019s too early to tell for sure how Colorado\u2019s monarch population will fare in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Monarch
Monarch butterflies, which travel annually to Durango as part of their migration cycle to and from either Mexico or California, made a booming comeback in 2021, according to data from the Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network. Will the higher numbers last or was this a fluke? There isn\u2019t enough data to be sure, said Shiran Hershcovich, lepidopterist at the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Kuenzi said she has spotted more milkweeds \u201cthan ever\u201d in the Durango area than in past years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like people are getting the message,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s intentionally planted or who is doing it or what, but I have noticed that there\u2019s milkweed plants popping up along the river trail.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said local milkweed would still fare better with a wetter habitat. But anywhere there is runoff, such along the sides of a river or a road where water will flow downhill, makes good habitat for the plant.<\/p>\n

Still, Kuenzi warned that people shouldn\u2019t adopt the misconception that milkweed is the only plant that the monarch species needs. After their larval stage, they require a diverse plethora of wildflowers to take nectar from.<\/p>\n

She said the increased attention for monarch conservation is good for all pollinators \u2013 a rising tide raises all ships.<\/p>\n

But Hershcovich cautioned that although prospects for monarch butterflies appear optimistic, there isn\u2019t enough evidence to say definitively that they are truly recovering from years of population decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo is this a trend? Will we continue to see the populations go up? Was this a one-off event? Will we see a decrease? It\u2019s a little too early to tell pattern-wise what is going on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said Colorado is a unique place for monarchs because it is the epicenter of two monarch \u201ccommunities\u201d with separate migration routes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monarch populations are divided into two groups: The eastern monarch and the western monarch,\u201d she said. \u201cThe eastern monarch is the largest of the two. It spends its winters down in Mexico. So it makes that long journey south to spend the cold months there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe western monarch will spend its winters on the California coast. Colorado is actually the place where those two monarch populations are divided,\u201d she said. \u201cSo any monarchs \u2013 and this is more of a general rule \u2013 but most monarchs east of the Rockies belong to the eastern population of monarchs and will migrate south for the winter. And then monarchs west of the Rockies belong to the western monarch population and will spend their winters in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western insect population sees surge in 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1030,28,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-environment","tag-headlines","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84079,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38608\/revisions\/84079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38608"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}