The levels of monarch butterfly population in their winter habitat in Mexico has declined steadily since its high levels in the 1990s, though the World Wildlife Fund has reported that it has grown signifantly since 2013.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a WWF survey conducted in December indicates that the iconic and popular butterfly’s winter habitat has grown to 10 acres — a huge increase over the 1.66 acres the butterflies inhabited during 2013.
But why did the habitat shrink so considerably? The monarch population in Mexico has been declining as a result of the shrinking of its over-wintering locale.
In 1996, the habitat was as big as 45 acres. At that time, there were around 500 million butterflies who made the migration from the United States to their Mexican habitat. That number has since shrunk, though in recent years it has shown serious growth. Last year it was 56.5 million, and the year before it was 33.5 million, demonstrating a significant increase.
“Now more than ever, Mexico, the United States, and Canada should increase their conservation efforts to protect and restore the habitat of this butterfly along its migratory route,” said Omar Vidal, director general for the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico.
A variety of environmental protection and preservation groups, along with food safety groups, have asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to categorize the monarch butterfly as endangered. This would give the butterflies the protection they need to foster more population growth.
However, factors beside direct human intervention have been contributing to the growth of the butterflies.
The butterflies have not yet been granted endangered status, but the weather in recent years along with contributions by company’s like Monsanto have allowed the population to begin to flourish once again.