The monarch, with its beautiful orange, black and white markings, is one of the most easily recognized species of butterfly. Each fall they set out on one of the longest insect migrations in the world, an incredible 5000 km journey to the forests of Mexico.
Every fall however, there are fewer making that journey. Consider this scary statistic that compares the monarch population in California from 4.5 million in the 1980's to 1 million in 1997 to only 192,000 in 2017. This means the monarch butterfly population in California has dropped to less than 0.5% of its historical size. The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service disclosed recently that from the year 1990, around a billion Monarch butterflies have vanished. Scientists fear the species will be extinct within 20 years.
Habitat destruction may well be the main reason leading to the consistent decreasing numbers of the Monarchs. Agricultural practices that rely on heavily spraying herbicides has led to the destruction of the milkweed plant, the only plant that the caterpillars feed on. By 1999, the use of such harmful chemicals has led to around 97% of milkweed being eradicated.