Backyard Bug- Tarantula Hawk

By Emily Racine, Guest Services & Membership Coordinator

Backyard Bug
Join us as we explore our backyards, gardens, and windowsills to learn more about our native Colorado invertebrates!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a…. what is that? With the ability to reach up to four inches in length and color diversity that rivals that of butterflies, Tarantula Hawks or Tarantula Hawk Wasps (Pepsis spp.) are an intimidating force, especially if you
happen to be a tarantula.

Species Identifiers
Tarantula Hawks are a type of spider wasp, with 133 known species and ranges that span across South and Central America and the southern United States. Within Colorado, there are six different species that are known to occur, the most common being Thisbe’s Tarantula Hawk (Pepsis thisbe) which can typically be found in the southeastern portion of the state. These wasps have dark blue, iridescent bodies, bright orange wings, and grow up to two inches in length.

Common Misconceptions
Contrary to what their name may suggest, adult Tarantula Hawk Wasps do not consume the tarantulas they catch. Instead, female wasps will hunt and sting a tarantula to immobilize it, bring it back to its burrow or a similar shelter, and lay their eggs in the spider. The opening to the burrow is then covered with debris to provide a safe shelter for the wasp larvae to grow, and the tarantula provides them with a food source to do so.

Despite their fearsome appearance, Tarantula Hawks are important pollinators! Adult wasps are nectivores, meaning both males and females feed almost exclusively on pollen and nectar from flowers, and even enjoy sipping on the juice of fruits and berries. Tarantula Hawks can also be excellent indicators of biodiversity within the habitats they occupy – even providing important information that can be used to survey their prey’s populations!

Join us for a day of live music, activities for all ages, food trucks, giveaways and more- a true pollinator party! Come celebrate with us!

One of the most-asked questions at Butterfly Pavilion used to be, “How do I attract butterflies to my yard without attracting bees?” The staff heard that question just slightly less often than “How long do butterflies live?” and “Where are the restrooms?” And it made sense – no one likes getting stung, and people were trying to be careful. I’ve noticed a sea change (or is it a bee change?) in the last couple of decades in the public’s understanding of bees and what they contribute to our lives. These days, we are more likely to hear questions about helping bees or about the challenges their populations are facing.

Colorado has 946 native species of bees – bees of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Bees that come out in early spring, bees that are out all year long. One of our most commonly spotted bees, the honeybee (Apis mellifera) is not originally from North America but now plays a huge role in the pollination of agricultural crops. We also have honey and beeswax, thanks to the tireless efforts of the 2.7 million honeybee hives across the United States. When people think of bees, the honeybee is probably what comes into their minds first. After all, we can relate to an insect that has a complicated social structure and division of labor, like we do. They symbolize persistence and industriousness, flying miles in search of food, sometimes at speeds of 20 miles per hour. Plus, they dance to communicate – what’s not to love?

But shouldn’t we love the other kinds of bees in the state? Or the hundreds of species of wasps, flies, beetles, butterflies, and moths that also provide pollination services? These species are well-adapted to both our climate and our native plant communities and are key in ensuring the continuing health of our natural areas. They may not be able to fly as long or build massive colonies, but they each have their special relationships that make them worth conserving. Responsible beekeeping practices and plentiful habitat are key to promoting the coexistence of honeybees and wild pollinators, so that we can continue to have healthy food systems and healthy ecosystems. Butterfly Pavilion is working closely with communities like Baseline to be certified as Pollinator Districts, so that we can ensure that pollinators will live among us over the long term.

This year, Butterfly Pavilion is excited to be participating in Baseline’s 2nd Annual Honey Bee Day on August 20 from 10:30 am – 2 pm at Checkers Square (16555 Shoshone Street, Broomfield 80023). Honey Bee Day celebrates honeybees and all the other pollinators that make our environment fruitful and beautiful. We will be leading a pollinator tour of Checkers Square and sharing preliminary results from this year’s pollinator survey of the Baseline Pollinator District. We will also have all sorts of information about how you can get involved in making the world better for pollinators and for people. The event also features live music, crafts, face painting, giveaways, and more – a true pollinator party! Come celebrate with us!

Overview

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced it has added migratory monarchs to their “Red List” as endangered, although this list is

not connected to the

USFWS Endangered Species Act

. Therefore, monarchs have not been listed as endangered under the ESA. 

The IUCN announcement will be great for continuing awareness about the great need for monarch conservation – but it does not have the same ramifications as an ESA listing in the U.S.  

While it’s not the same as being listed as “endangered” by the EPA, it is a positive and important step in the conservation of Monarchs – if for no other reason than it has us all talking about them.  It can also help encourage increasing national efforts to help protect and preserve these iconic butterflies through programs such as Butterfly Pavilion’s Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network community science program https://butterflies.org/community-science/ 

What does an IUCN red list assessment mean?

 

Is the monarch butterfly listed under the Endangered Species Act? Why or why not?

  

I thought monarchs were doing better. What’s going on?

 

Is this good news? Bad news? 

 

The IUCN is an impactful international organization that has the power of increasing awareness and conservation participation that can make a direct impact in pollinator health, so this can be seen as an important and urgent call to action. You may use this designation positively to start conversations in the forums you have access to (guests, friends, family, etc.) to create a safer space for our impressive invertebrates. Do note this new designation does not change any existing programs, regulations, or laws around monarch or pollinator health.  With more focus on monarchs there will hopefully be more conservation efforts continued and created to help protect current and future populations.  

What does the future for monarchs look like? 

 

Monarchs are a resilient and adaptable species! Numbers have been low in the past and may be low again in the future. Fluctuations in population size for invertebrates often mean trials with new survival strategies, which are particularly important in a modern world full of challenges including climatic changes and habitat loss. Monarchs have developed one of the most incredible adaptive strategies in the animal kingdom and perform one of the most spectacular migrations that life has to offer. The Western monarch counts reported an abysmally low number of 2,000 overwintering individuals in 2020. It jumped to 200,000 in 2021. Awareness and action could turn them into 2,000,000! Conservation is in our hands  

Butterfly Pavilion aims to understand the husbandry and rearing of fireflies in preparation for restoration of wild populations of fireflies suffering from habitat loss in Colorado.

Did you know that Colorado has native fireflies?

Most people are unaware of this due to light pollution and development destroying their habitat. To conserve fireflies and their habitat, Butterfly Pavilion is studying how to breed and raise fireflies under human care. Check out this video to experience our most recent collection in Fort Collins!

Fourteen species of fireflies in North America are threatened with extinction, and one species was petitioned for an emergency Endangered Species Act listing in 2019. The imperiled status of wild firefly populations makes understanding their environmental needs for survival a pressing topic. Breeding fireflies under human care in the US has only been intermittently accomplished in academic settings. In 2022, Butterfly Pavilion continued our project to study, breed, and raise these animals under human care to develop industry best practices, determine their potential for display in outdoor zoo exhibits, and gain insight to inform future efforts to reintroduce native firefly species into the wild. As their native wetland habitats continue to be lost due to development and to light and water pollution, it is important that we continue to study what fireflies need to survive and reproduce in both lab settings and natural habitats. Last year, we continued to study how over-wintering firefly larvae at different temperatures affects their transformation from larvae to pupae.  Butterfly Pavilion is committed to making fireflies a part of every Coloradan experience, and our goal is to have fireflies in our new facility when it opens in 2027. You can play a role in the conservation of fireflies by reducing light pollution stress that affects fireflies and other nocturnal animals. By supporting Butterfly Pavilion, you are supporting local and global research and conservation programs like this one!   

Learn about our other important research programs, and support our mission by making a donation today!

Research and Conservation Projects

Donate Today!

Happy Pi Day! Let’s Talk About Math!

When most people think of zoos, math is not necessarily the first topic that comes to mind. I would imagine that most people think about conservation, or sustainability, or biology, or even animal science long before they get to math.

And I understand why that is. When we are learning biology in school or thinking about the natural world, plants and animals naturally come up. If you were to stretch your mind a little, you might start pondering about the chemical reactions that make fireflies glow or even watch Rosie and begin to wonder about the physics that control the movement of her legs.

Math is still not top of mind. But I want to change this because math is everywhere.

Now before we go any further, I think we need to address the stinkbug in the room—math is not always everyone’s favorite subject, and that’s okay! To those people, I would challenge you to read a little further with an open mind and see how amazing math can be, especially at the zoo.

With me still? Awesome!

Imagine, if you will, that you’ve just entered Butterfly Pavilion, walked into our exhibit, Survival, and stopped in front of our indoor beehive. It’s a quieter day, so you can really hear the buzzing of the hive as the bees exit and enter the hive. At this point, you are probably wondering where math fits in. Look closer at their home. Every single one of the cells in the honeycomb is a hexagon—a six-sided shape. Why? Math!

No, really.  It’s geometry, a type of math that studies shapes.

When bees build hives, the cells in the honeycombs need to tightly fit together, hold a lot of weight because honey can be heavy, and use as little wax as possible.  If we use a little geometry, we can see that hexagons are perfect for this.

Circles wouldn’t work because they don’t fit tightly together—if the cells were circles there would be a lot of gaps.

Squares fit together very tightly but are not very strong—think about how easy it is to flatten a cardboard box. That’s great for storage but not good for holding heavy honey.

Triangles fit together well and are very strong but take a lot of wax to create.

Hexagons are strong, fit together tightly, and take less wax to create. They are the perfect shape for honeycombs.

Looking for a deeper mathematical adventure, take a walk to the next exhibit, Water’s Edge, and peer into the Florida Reef Tract Tank. The coral in there are special, and not just because they will be returned to their natural habitat when scientists learn more about the disease affecting the Florida Reef Tract where they once lived. Some of these corals have a very special pattern. Look very closely, can you find shapes that repeat and cover the entire surface? If so, you’ve spotted a tessellation. Tessellations are a special pattern made up of repeating shapes covering an entire surface. They are one of the major patterns that we can spot in nature and there is another pattern that you might see in Water’s Edge.

Head over to the touch tank and ask one of the interpreters if you can see one of the shells that we display there. They might hand you a nautilus shell to examine. Nautilus are a marine invertebrate related to the octopus, but their shells have a very special shape: a spiral.  The spiral of the Nautilus is very close to a Fibonacci spiral—a spiral that is created from the Fibonacci sequence. This sequence goes 1,1,2,3,5,8…on and on with the next number in the pattern being created by adding the two numbers before it. This pattern shows up throughout the natural world, in spirals, the number of petals on flowers, and even the growth of cacti.

Another important pattern at Butterfly Pavilion can best be found by stepping into our rainforest.

Walk through the double doors, take a moment to enjoy the warm air, and then look closely. Have you spotted a butterfly yet? If so, you’ve found the pattern in their colorful wings.  Watch the butterfly flit about until it lands and folds its wings. Did the colors match up? They should have; butterflies have a line of symmetry running down the middle of their bodies which means if you were to fold them over, like they do when they are resting, the two sides would match. Symmetry is a big part of mathematics because we can use it to learn a lot about curves, shapes, and equations leading us to solve big challenges in mathematics. Isn’t it cool that such an important thing can be seen in the wing of a butterfly?

Math is everywhere at the zoo; in every animal and plant you see. Math describes and even explains the ways in which our animals look, sound, move.

So, have I done it? Do you love math now? Can you see it everywhere you look? Since I’m sure there are some examples I’ve missed, what other math can you spot around our zoo?

Resources used:

Tessellation (mathsisfun.com)

Fibonacci Numbers – Math Images (swarthmore.edu)

Why Do Bees Make Hexagons In Their Hives? – Northwest Public Broadcasting (nwpb.org)

Why Are Honeycombs Shaped Like Hexagons? | Bee Removal (jjext.com)

Butterfly Pavilion is thrilled to announce the first annual Butterfly Quest – a fun, engaging, and educational event launching on February 22, 2022. By participating in this event, aspiring scientists, butterfly enthusiasts, and any adventurous guest can assist with ongoing butterfly research through an  interactive experience.

Taking place in Butterfly Pavilion’s Wings of the Tropics butterfly conservatory, Butterfly Quest allows guests to act as scientists. Guests will  track and observe tagged butterflies, record meaningful data, and capture beautiful pictures of our butterflies- all through your phone!! By participating in Butterfly Quest, you are helping scientists here at Butterfly Pavilion and around the world. What better way is there to make a direct impact on animal welfare here and in zoos around the world?

“Butterfly Pavilion is always seeking new approaches to understand and observe the lifespan of different invertebrate species to lead the way in improving invertebrate welfare,” says Shiran Hershcovich, Lepidopterist Manager at Butterfly Pavilion. “Butterfly Quest is an immersive experience to fuel our guests’ sense of curiosity and exploration as they discover butterflies in a fresh new way.”

Butterfly Quest is a longevity study, which  allows our scientists to learn how long butterflies live in our conservatory’s tropical environment. At Butterfly Pavilion, when a new butterfly emerges in the butterfly conservatory’s chrysalis chamber, our research team tags it with a special sticker and number. Then, the butterfly is released into the conservatory. At this stage, guests can participate in the study through Butterfly Quest. Tracking and observing all the tagged butterflies is a very time-consuming process for our scientists so by getting involved, guests help gather information that indicates how long butterflies live, the way they act, and if changes are needed in animal care.

 

Tagged butterfly example is pictured below:


With the purchase of a Butterfly Quest ticket pack, you can save up to $16 off admission. AND, ticket packs include one Bug Bucket which allows children to bring the science home with them! These buckets give kids all the materials they might need to observe any invertebrate in their own backyard! Purchase tickets here.

 

How You Can Help Butterfly Longevity When Visiting Butterfly Pavilion:

 

Butterfly Pavilion offers other opportunities for guests to extend their involvement in conservation by volunteering with one of our community science projects, including  Butterfly Monitoring, Dragonfly Monitoring and Urban Prairies Project. Learn more about all opportunities here.

Butterfly Pavilion released the 9th Annual Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network (CBMN) Report on the state of Colorado native butterfly populations, revealing heightened sightings and reporting of Monarch Butterflies throughout Colorado. CBMN, celebrating its 10th year of consecutive monitoring in 2022, is a long-term community science project relying on volunteer monitors to record and identify butterflies throughout Colorado.  The report suggests that 2021 was the best year in the past decade for monarch butterflies in the state, which is consistent with the increased monarch sightings across North America this past year.

“We are enthused to find that monarchs in Colorado showed an approximate 180% increase from the mean over the past seven years of our monitoring efforts, said Shiran Hershcovich, Lepidopterist Manager, Butterfly Pavilion. “The results are promising with the 2021 CBMN field season seeing a return of butterfly, monitor, and survey numbers higher than those in 2019.”

 

Since its inception in 2013, CBMN, one of the nation’s fastest-growing butterfly monitoring program, has recorded 107,811 individual butterflies and logged 3,166 butterfly surveys, accounting for 3,795 hours of volunteer monitoring through 2021. This past year included 12 counties including Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, El Paso, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Ouray, Routt, and Weld.

A Special Thank You To our Gardens on Spring Creek Team:

 

2021 Top Findings:

 

“While we’ve got a lot of great data, we still need more,” said Shiran Hershcovich, Lepidopterist Manager, Butterfly Pavilion.  “That’s where the public comes in with community science programs, such as our monitoring networks at Butterfly Pavilion, to cover more geographies and support pollinator conservation.”

 

Volunteers Make it Happen

 

The CBMN is above all a community science project, and the most valuable resources are the monitors who volunteer their time to the program.

“This is people-powered science”, says Hershcovich. “When our community gets involved in these efforts, they become stakeholders in conservation and stewards for the protection of our native invertebrates!”

The 61 active monitors in the program in 2021 contributed 551.2 hours of time toward butterfly monitoring, helping to assess and identify butterflies throughout Colorado. In total, the active monitors submitted 502 surveys; this is the highest number of both surveys and hours that the program has seen across nine seasons of monitoring.

 

How it works

The CBMN involves trained volunteer monitors walking the same route at least six times throughout the butterfly monitoring season (here defined as May 15 – October 15, 2021) and recording every butterfly seen in a 6-meter radius.

During a survey, only one monitor observes butterflies at a time, however monitors are advised to work in pairs, allowing one to conduct the survey while the other keeps notes and aids with identifications. At the beginning and end of each monitoring session, monitors record the time, the temperature, the cloud cover conditions (clear, mostly clear, partly cloudy, mostly cloudy, overcast, or hazy) and the wind conditions (calm, relatively still, moderately windy, wind, or very windy). The monitors then walk the route at a steady pace, recording every butterfly seen inside their area of choice within their community.

 

About Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network

The Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network (CBMN) is a community science project led by Butterfly Pavilion that harnesses the power of volunteers to conserve Colorado butterflies. Butterflies are not only beautiful, but they also play a vital role in the ecosystem. CBMN data informs us on which butterflies are active in our state, giving us important insight on the health of our local ecosystems. CBMN volunteers observe and count butterflies in open spaces and parks multiple times per season, gathering essential data that land managers can use when making conservation decisions. It’s a fantastic chance to get outdoors and learn about butterflies, while having a positive impact on conservation in Colorado.

CBMN, one of the nation’s fastest-growing butterfly monitoring program, began in 2013 with four active monitors collecting data on five routes. The 2014 season saw major growth to 54 active monitors surveying 49 routes. The program has seen consistent monitoring since the 2014 season, with between 52 and 63 monitors reporting data on between 51 and 61 routes each year from 2015 through 2021.

 

Shiran Hershcovich, Lepidopterist Manager at Butterfly Pavilion, is the newest member of the International Association of Butterfly Exhibitors & Suppliers (IABES) board of directors! She will be completing a 3-year term in her new position. Congratulations Shiran – this is an exciting and well-deserved achievement!

IABES is the world’s only organization specifically focused on butterfly exhibition and breeding. Their mission is to protect wild butterflies and their natural habitats. No other organization brings together more butterfly exhibitors and breeders. IABES also works to support lepidopterans – an order of insect that includes butterflies and moths – through direct financial support for conservation and research efforts with the purpose of protecting wild butterflies and their habitats.  

 

They do so by: 

“I’m most excited to strengthen the bridge between butterfly farms and exhibits. I consider it a privilege to work with our global partners and among so many different perspectives and backgrounds,” said Shiran. “And of course, being from the tropics myself, I’m passionate about creating a safer tomorrow for our tropical rainforests through the sustainable butterfly industry.”  

 

Shiran is passionate about expanding the understanding of Lepidopteran biology, ecology, and welfare and is currently running a longevity study here at Butterfly Pavilion’s conservatory, Wings of The Tropics. The purpose of this study is to develop best welfare practices for butterflies under human care and increase understanding of their life cycle. You can help participate in the longevity study through “Butterfly Quest,” an engaging, fun, and interactive event where you assist with Butterfly Pavilion research! Learn more about how visitors like YOU can help scientists like Shiran gather crucial data here while visiting Butterfly Pavilion, February 22 – March 20.   

To learn more about IABES or get involved, visit their website, here! 

 

 

By Sara Stevens, Aquatics Manager, Butterfly Pavilion

When it comes to conservation, zoos and aquariums are often reactionary, trying to protect a species or habitat after the initial threat has become established. This historic model often results from a lack of resources. It takes time, money, and manpower to effectively implement conservation work around the globe. It’s like trying to fight a raging fire with limited water, so most organizations are forced to target their efforts at providing the greatest impact as efficiently as possible. One of the biggest issues in animal conservation is how much we don’t know about a species. When it comes to invertebrates, animals that are often the foundations of our ecosystems, this lack of understanding can lead to catastrophic ecosystem collapses. While it is impossible to learn the needs of every animal that exists, Butterfly Pavilion has worked to develop two highly effective strategies for conservation success through animal husbandry.

Husbandry on the Fly

How do you care for an animal when you don’t know what it needs? In the year 2021, it may seem unthinkable that there are animals in the world that have not been cared for by zoos and aquariums. While zoos and aquariums have cared for thousands of animals over the years, there are still millions more, many invertebrates, which zoological institutions have never held. This means that when an emergency strikes and these animals require human care to ensure their survival, the stakes can be very high!

At Butterfly Pavilion we strive to maximize our impact when it comes to protecting invertebrate species around the globe. This has led to a proactive approach to conservation through animal husbandry that revolves around being a resource to large, cooperative programs like our participation in the Association of Zoos & Aquariums-Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project (AZA-FRTRP) and developing rearing protocols for species of concern that remain poorly understood in case intervention is necessary in the future, like our Hudsonian emerald dragonfly program.

Our work with the AZA-FRTRP centers on caring for healthy coral rescued ahead of the stony coral tissue loss disease zone in the Florida Reef Tract. These healthy colonies of coral will serve as the foundation of future restoration efforts. Due to the rapid pace of the disease’s spread, the large number of specimens requiring care to preserve the genetic diversity of the species, and the lack of knowledge on the specialized needs of the species, this project has become a first-of-its-kind response that could change the future of coral conservation.

When the call for aid went out in 2018, our team knew we could leverage our animal expertise and our educational platform to not only safeguard these coral, but also to share their story with an audience mostly unaware of their peril. Due to our limited behind-the-scenes space and the highly specialized needs of the coral, we quickly realized the only place we could house these new animals was on display for our guests. This was a huge risk since we did not know how difficult their care would be, what their condition would be when they arrived, or how our guests would react to viewing an active research project. At Butterfly Pavilion we believe understanding is best achieved through transparency, which meant putting the science on display and allowing our guests the opportunity to participate in the journey with us. It allows our guests to learn as we discover new things, mourn with us when we have losses, and celebrate when we have triumphs. It allows us to foster a connection that could not exist if these animals remained behind closed doors.

While the initial risk created stress for our animal care staff, we found it to be revolutionary for our guests. In the year we have cared for these corals, we have seen growth and health beyond what we could have ever imagined. While we did lose a colony that arrived to us after having been infected with an unknown disease, the majority of our corals have flourished. This wasn’t just luck but the culmination of hours of extra time dedicated to supporting their care, weekly calls working with other holding facilities to troubleshoot health issues in real time, and innovating new care techniques on the fly. In addition, the exhibit has managed to capture the attention of our guests in a way we never saw before. Overall, the program is not merely a conservation success as we safeguard the future of the Florida Reef Tract, but also an educational success as well.

Conservation Foresight

Our second strategy for conservation through care is more proactive. In 2017, Butterfly Pavilion identified a need to pursue dragonfly conservation. Dragonflies are important indicators of ecosystem health and their presence, or absence, can have large impacts on local wildlife. Dragonflies are valuable predators helping to control mosquito and midge populations. They are also a valuable food source for fish and birds. This makes them an important animal to monitor, like a canary in the coal mine.  When their populations begin to decline there can be vast cascading consequences. We still have much to learn about dragonfly conservation, particularly the best ways to help bolster populations that start to decline.

In 2017, Butterfly Pavilion launched a program to learn more about the husbandry needs of native Colorado dragonfly species as a way to proactively conserve dragonflies in our state. Colorado provides a variety of unique habitats, particularly along the Front Range. These alpine and subalpine ecosystems are incredibly narrow and fragile, making the animals that call it home vulnerable to even minor ecological and manmade changes.  The species we became particularly concerned about was the Hudsonian emerald (Somatochlora hudsonica). This jet black dragonfly with emerald eyes only occurs in a handful of locations in Colorado and over the years has become more difficult to find.

In cooperation with Boulder County Open Space wildlife biologists, we created a plan to develop husbandry protocols to support rearing the Hudsonian emerald under human care.  This began by working with a more common cousin called the Mountain emerald (Somatochlora semicircularis). In 2017 we collected eggs from female Mountain emeralds to hatch and rear at Butterfly Pavilion. These baby dragonflies spent three years growing in our aquatic systems under the care of our staff. In June of 2020, we had our first dragonflies emerge as adults, and we released them back into the wild. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first time anyone successfully reared this species under human care. Thanks to the success of this three-year effort, this summer our scientists will venture into the wilderness to collect eggs from female Hudsonian emeralds to rear at Butterfly Pavilion.

This important step was necessary to help us systematically and rigorously develop techniques that will help support future conservation needs. By being proactive and monitoring invertebrate populations we can intervene earlier. This approach can often provide more effective conservation while utilizing fewer resources. As Butterfly Pavilion continues its invertebrate conservation around the world we will continue to push for a proactive model, even as we help address crises that develop rapidly.

By Chris García-Hellmuth, Butterfly Coordinator, Butterfly Pavilion

 

Monarch butterfly ESA listing decision

Migrating monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are experiencing a drastic decline in population numbers. Some populations are suffering, while others remain static. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have announced their decision that listing monarchs under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is “warranted but precluded”. This means that monarchs will become a candidate species for listing under the ESA. For more information on the decision, the official press release can be found here.

Why warranted but precluded?

The decision to list monarchs as threatened or endangered has been a nuanced process for the USFWS. This listing does not mean that monarchs will never be considered for an ESA listing, just at a later date. Analyzing all of the information through a scientific lens has led them to this decision. The constraints of the ESA prevents it from considering only a specific population of monarchs from being listed. The complexity of the monarch endangerment requires a considerate approach. The USFWS has announced a proposal to be released for a monarch listing under the ESA in 2024 as long as the listing is still warranted. Monarch populations will be monitored yearly to assess the potential need for an ESA listing.

Monarchs still need our help

Every November, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation monitors all of the known overwintering sites along the California coast. The past few years have yielded counts just below 30,000 total individuals, the proposed quasi-extinction threshold for the Western population. This year, however, preliminary results indicate that the total overwintering count for all sites will not exceed 2,000 individuals. (For more information about the past overwintering counts and the difference between the Eastern and Western populations, click here)

Conservationists across the country are using this ruling as a call to action to help save monarch butterflies. Climate change, disease, and the use of pesticides and herbicides are the main threats facing the monarchs that overwinter on the West coast.

What can we do?

This listing decision invites communities to continue to work to conserve monarch butterflies. Below is a list of actions we can do to conserve this valuable species.

Butterfly Pavilion is constantly working to conserve monarchs and the other invertebrates that serve as the backbone to our vital ecosystems.