ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Not listed; protection deemed "warranted but precluded" in December 2020

RANGE: All U.S. states except Alaska

THREATS: Loss of milkweed in the Midwest due to spraying of Roundup (glyphosate) on genetically modified crops; sprawl, global climate change, pesticides, development of overwintering groves in California, logging of their overwintering grounds in Mexico

POPULATION TREND: Monarchs across North America have declined by more than 80 percent over the past 20 years. In the mid-1990s there were approximately 1 billion monarchs, but as of winter 2013-2014, the population had declined to 35 million. The annual "overwintering" count of monarchs released in February 2017 confirmed that butterfly numbers had fallen by 27 percent from the 2016 count, indicating an ongoing risk of extinction for this butterfly.

Monarch butterfly photo courtesy Flickr/Debbie Long.