Fly High
Introduction
The “Danaus Plexippus”, better known as the iconic monarch butterfly, is well-known to the human population. The butterfly is currently endangered and on the brink of extinction. These species can be found in certain parts of North America like meadows, grasslands, etc. They go on a southward migration during the winter time to avoid the harsh cold weather. They travel over thousands of miles despite their petite size. Their diet is very straightforward and consists of milkweed as larvae and wildflowers as adult monarch butterflies. They are also the food source for birds, small animals, and other insects, but are poisonous to any other animal. There are many reasons why the monarch butterfly is currently endangered, three of them being habitat loss, pesticide exposure, and climate change. A monarch butterfly is very important to our ecosystem because they pollinate our flowers and help our ecosystem survive. The monarch butterflies deserve to be saved for multiple reasons and contribute a lot to our world.
Description
Despite its small size, the monarch butterfly can fly great distances, and its unpleasant taste is a natural defense mechanism. The “Danaus Plexippus,” AKA the monarch butterfly, is commonly known for their white spotted orange and black body. The bright colors on a monarch’s body are a defense mechanism to warn predators that it has an “unpleasant taste” and may be poisonous. It is believed that “they were first called the Monarch butterfly in honor of King William III of England” (Bandera) since their brightly orange-colored bodies matched the king's nickname, Orange. Their scientific name “Danaus Plexippus” means sleepy transformation, referring to their “fascinating ability to metamorphose and hibernate” (Bandera). Monarch butterflies start off their life as eggs. Afterward, they hatch as caterpillars and continue to live as caterpillars for about 2-5 weeks. Once they are done growing, the caterpillar goes into metamorphosis for about 1-2 weeks before they can finally emerge from their cocoon. Then once the transition is complete, they become the beautiful monarch butterfly we know today. They have a four-inch wingspan and weigh less than half a gram. They can fly as high as nine kilometers (six miles) in one hour. Monarchs are known for their long migration journey despite their size. According to Gerardo Bandera, “Every year, thousands of monarch butterflies travel between 1,200 and 2,800 miles across the Americas on an awe-inspiring migratory journey.” The monarch butterflies complete this migration process yearly which just proves that they are a very strong animal having to withstand all the obstacles that come in the way of this migration process.
Habitat
The monarch butterfly is a widespread and very common insect in multiple locations. Monarch butterflies can be found in North America and can also be found in northern South America (Bandera). A couple of locations that monarch butterflies mainly live in are "prairies, meadows, grasslands, and along roadsides across most of North America" (Pollinators). They stay planted in these areas during the summer with warm weather but once the winter hits they start their beautiful migration process. Their migration journey consists of the monarchs heading south “overwintering sites in Mexico and California” (Bandera). They travel over thousands of miles and “are among the most remarkable feats of animal migration in the world” (Bandera). Urbanization has ruined multiple habitats for the monarch butterflies. Habitat loss is one of the main reasons monarch butterflies are currently endangered. Areas that were once known as safe spaces for the monarchs are being turned into areas for “agriculture, tourism, and urban sprawl” (Fox). One adaptation the monarch butterfly has to make is their migration process. Since Monarch butterflies are cold-blooded they tend to have better chances of surviving in warm weather, so they make their trip southward once they start to feel the coldness of winter in the north.
Food
Monarch butterflies have it very simple for their diet. A monarch butterfly “lays their eggs on milkweed, so when they hatch the baby caterpillars have something to eat” (Monarch Butterfly). Therefore as larvae, they feed off of milkweed since it is very nutritiously rich for them and allows them to “metamorphose into adults in as little as 25 days” (Bandera). Later on, as adult butterflies, they feed off of nectar from the flowers they pollinate. “The milkweed’s toxins remain permanently in the monarch’s system” even after the monarch butterflies complete their metamorphosis (Pollinators). The monarch doesn't have to catch their food, they just have to land on it. Even before their metamorphosis, the caterpillars only have to eat the milkweed they are born on. The monarchs feeding off of our wildflowers are also very beneficial to us because they also pollinate the wildflowers. Monarch butterflies do not always eat for pleasure though. Some monarch butterflies, mostly males, feed on puddles, sweat, and sometimes even tears. They do this to gather salt minerals that help female monarchs with their egg development. Monarch butterflies are an important food source for "birds, small animals, and other insects". Without monarch butterflies, the predators could run out of food and later perish (Pollinators).
Issues
The monarch butterfly is currently considered an endangered species. Monarch butterflies have multiple reasons they are endangered. The three main ones are “habitat loss, pesticide exposure, and climate change” (Fox). Habitat loss is one of the main reasons monarch butterflies are currently considered endangered. Areas once known as” safe spaces for the monarchs” are being turned into “areas for agriculture, tourism, and urban sprawl” (Fox). Humans are a huge problem when it comes to conserving the monarch's ecosystem which causes their population to decline. Another reason monarch butterflies are endangered is because of pesticide exposure. The “pesticide glyphosate is taking out the only food source” for monarch caterpillars (Fox). With their one source of food dying because of the high pesticide use, monarch butterflies are most likely going to become extinct soon. The third main reason Monarch butterflies are reaching the point of extinction is because of the horrible effects of climate change. Changes in the temperatures caused by climate change can “disrupt crucial stages in the monarch's life cycle”. The more the climate rises, so do the stress levels of the butterflies in the overwintering stage which leads the butterflies to perish (Fox). Over the past years, it has been estimated that the monarch's population in the wild has declined by 85%. Most people in the spirit of saving the monarchs take in the monarchs as caterpillars and raise them until they are ready to be released in the wild, helping the number of monarchs increase. The monarch's reproductive system has nothing to do with the species being endangered. A female monarch can lay up to 1,800 eggs in her lifetime (Bandera)! During mating season female monarchs lay eggs on the “underside of the milkweed leaves, they hatch as caterpillars or larvae and can metamorphose into adults in 25 days or more” (Bandera).
Conclusion/Preservation Plan
The monarch butterfly brings many benefits to our world, from just being a beautiful animal to also being one of the reasons that the human species survives and can live their day-to-day life. A reason the monarch butterfly should be saved is that they "contribute to the health of our planet". Monarch butterflies are pollinators therefore they contribute major benefits to the earth’s ecosystem (Pollinators). You mostly find them in fields of wildflowers where they are very actively contributing to the health of the earth. Without pollinators in the world, studies show that the ecosystem of the earth would not be able to survive and would decline quickly. The butterflies are beneficial to their habitat and provide nutrition for some animals, this would mean that if the monarch butterfly were to go extinct some animals would run out of a food source which could even be their cause of death. There are multiple ways that people have used to try and conserve the butterflies but only some of them have proven to be efficient. These conservation methods include "catching, identifying, and tagging monarchs" With just that, many butterflies can be, and have been saved (Pollinators). The WWF has a program to preserve vital butterfly habitats in Mexico, they work with the Mexican government, local communities, and other partners to promote good forest management and sustainable tourism (Monarch Butterfly). Programs like these help out the monarch butterflies a ton and are the reason for most of the success in the attempts to bring the monarch butterfly out of endangerment. Most humans with little to no research think the endangerment of these butterflies is no big deal and would not be worth the struggles of trying to rescue them but the truth is we can’t survive without monarch butterflies and they are a very important animal in our ecosystem. The cost of saving this species comes to nothing compared to the effect on this earth, which is why some people are very passionate about saving the monarch butterfly and there are many preservation programs as well. With the effort of just a couple of humans around the world the monarch butterfly could be saved from extinction!
Work Cited
Bandera, Gerardo. “Why the Monarch Butterfly Is Endangered and How to Save It.” FairPlanet, FairPlanet, 2 Apr. 2023, www.fairplanet.org/story/endangered-species-monarch-butterfly/.
Fox, Audrey. “Monarch Butterfly Endangered .” Friends of the Earth, 15 Sept. 2022, foe.org/blog/monarch-butterfly-endangered/.
“Monarch Butterfly.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, www.worldwildlife.org/species/monarch-butterfly.
“Pollinators.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/articles/monarch-butterfly.
