Beloved monarch butterflies are now listed as an endangered species

The monarch butterfly is closer to becoming extinct, but there are ways you can help boost its numbers.

The monarch butterfly, one of the most recognizable butterflies on the planet, is increasingly closer to being extinct and scientists have now added the insect to the international endangered list.

Six years ago, the orange and black beauty was designated as an endangered insect by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, but now the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — only two steps away from extinction.

Monarch butterflies are known for their distinct look, as well as their migration up to 4,000 kilometres across the Americas each year.

The IUCN, in a devastating report released Thursday, says North American populations of the subspecies have shrunk anywhere from 22 to 72 per cent over the past decade, depending on the measurements used, and climate change, drought, wildfires and the use of pesticides and herbicides are to blame for dwindling populations.

Logging and deforestation “has already destroyed substantial areas of the butterflies’ winter shelter” in Mexico and California, the report says, while aggressive use of herbicides and pesticides in farming can kill the butterflies.

Also contributing to the subspecies’ decline is the lack of milkweed — the host plant that the larvae of the butterfly feeds on.

According to the report, pesticide use can kill milkweed, and drought limits the growth of the crucial plant. Extreme temperatures are also fuelling wildfires that destroy milkweed, as well as triggering earlier migrations before milkweed in northern climates has established.