Federal Wildlife Officials Proposing to List the Monarch Butterfly as a Threatened Species

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025 -- 10:00 AM

(Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio) Federal wildlife officials are proposing to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species due to population declines, and researchers in Wisconsin hope it will prompt more conservation of monarch habitat.

According to Danielle Kaeding with Wisconsin Public Radio, eastern monarchs, the largest migratory population in North America, have declined 88 percent from its population of 383 million during the mid-1990s.

The population of western monarchs is down more than 99 percent from roughly 4.5 million in the 1980s. The proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be decided by the end of this year under a new administration.

During Donald Trump’s first term as president, the agency found the monarch’s listing was warranted, but other species were deemed a higher priority at the time. Each year, eastern monarchs embark on a migration spanning thousands of miles and multiple generations to overwintering grounds in Mexico.

But the iconic orange and black butterflies are facing threats from habitat loss, climate change and the use of insecticides, according to Lisa Nordstrom, the federal agency’s Midwest assistant regional director for ecological services.

“This small, small insect can migrate from here, Wisconsin and Minnesota, all the way down to Mexico, a place where they’ve never been, just their great, great grandparents were there,” Nordstrom said. “Hopefully, we don’t ever have to get close to contemplating that sort of a future that doesn’t have monarch butterflies in it.”

The agency’s most recent assessments found there’s a 56 to 74 percent chance the eastern population may go extinct by 2080. The likelihood of extinction is almost certain for western monarchs.

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