Butterflies, and most insects for that matter, are known for their wildly short life spans. Monarchs and their one month life expectancy are no exception. Within their population, however, is an exception. Once every fifth generation, monach butterflies are born with a potential life span seven to eight times greater than normal. Only those special butterflies are capable of completing the lengthy trip from Canada to Mexico.
Unfortunately, they have been trending downwards the last three years, none more so than this past year, National Geographic reported. According to a report from Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in December 2013, the number of butterflies hibernating in its woods has decreased by 44 percent from 2012 (2.76 acres to 1.65).
"The monarch butterfly as a species is not endangered," Omar Vidal, director general of the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico clarified through Nat Geo. "What is endangered is its migratory phenomenon from Canada to Mexico and back."
Indeed, monarch butterflies are found throughout the world. The ones that travel between Canada and Mexico are hurting because their primary food source, milkweed, is also hurting. Temperature fluctuations this year and continued deforestation have also contributed to their 44 percent loss.
It makes sense that "migrating monarchs" are rare, given they surface just once every five generations (which in butterfly speak is once ever 5 months or so), except now they are rarer than usual, to the point of endangered.
Like bees (but not to the same extent), butterflies are useful pollinators. Their food source and the surface on which they lay their eggs (milkweed), however, is seen as a pest by farmers and managed with herbicide, according to Nat Geo.
