A monarch butterfly stays on the hat of a tourist in Angangueo, central Mexico's Michoacan State, Dec. 31, 2005. (Xinhua Photo/Zhou Que)
In a recent interview with Xinhua, the researcher said the sanctuaries where the migrant butterflies rest in the United States, Canada and Mexico are being lost due to global warming, among other things.
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The migratory monarch butterfly in the Americas is under grave threat from breeding habitat destruction and climate change, Mexican biologist Gabriela Jimenez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico said, calling for more actions to protect the endangered species.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, the researcher said the sanctuaries where the migrant butterflies rest in the United States, Canada and Mexico are being lost due to global warming, among other things.
"In recent years, the population of this species has decreased in Mexico, while forests have disappeared in Canada where the butterflies rest, specifically in cold tolerant trees," Jimenez said.
When global temperature is rising, trees are being damaged and disappearing, boding ill for the stay, survival and reproduction of the beautiful butterfly.
On July 21, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added the monarch butterfly to its Red List of Threatened Species as Endangered, only one step away from becoming critically endangered.
The orange-winged species, which travels each year some 4,200 km from the United States and Canada to the Mexican mountains to spend the winter, has had a 72 percent reduction in its population over the past decades, IUCN data showed.
In view of this situation, the biologist called for more coordinated efforts to take care of pine forests where the butterflies shelter, and conserve milkweed plants, where they lay eggs and from which caterpillars emerge to feed on milkweed leaves, so as to protect them in their long-distance journey of migration.
She also suggested urgent measures to reduce carbon emission and curb climate change.
"If there are butterflies, it means that the ecosystem is fine," she said. "Butterflies are our great pollinators and if their role breaks down, we would be facing an irreparable catastrophe." ■
留言 0