Endangered monarchs 'not protected in any way,' Manitoba prof says

Manitoba's monarch butterfly population is the endangered species that makesan annual migration to and from the forests in central Mexico a species now considered closer to extinction yet its survival is restingon a wing and a prayer.

"They're not protected in any way. That means that I or anyone else could walk out with a net and catch and kill one if we wished," saidJeffrey Marcus, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Manitoba

"It really is an iconic butterfly. It's one of the few butterfly species that essentially everyone in North America recognizes. If we were to, for whatever reason, lose that butterfly as part of our natural environment, we would all feel that loss."

The monarch butterfly was added on Thursday to theInternational Union for the Conservation of Nature's"red list" of threatened species and categorized as endangered two steps from extinct.

The group estimates that the population of monarchs in North America has declined between 22 per centand 72 per centover 10 years, depending on the measurement method.

"It's really disheartening news whenever you get a species that's added to these lists that enumerate all the endangered and critically endangered species," said Dr. Stephen Petersen, director of conservation and research for Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg.

"It makes everyone involved sad, because there's reasons they're declining, and we're not stopping them."

Canadian law designates the migratory monarch (as opposed to thenonmigratory ones in Central and South America, which are notendangered)as a species of special concern.

While that earmarks funding for research,conservation efforts in areas that monarchs rely on, and education of the public, it offerszero protection, said Marcus, who describes his specialty as "abutterfly evolutionary geneticist."

Listing it as threatenedwould require someone to have a special permit in order to take or kill one, while putting it on theendangered list would outright prohibit that.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, which advises the environment minister on which species are at risk, has designated the monarch as endangered, but the federal government has not added it to the endangered list in the Species at Risk Act, so it does not get those protections.

Designation holds no authority

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's designation also holds no power, other than to raise awareness, Marcus said.It's up to governments to do something concrete.

"So the IUCN, in acting in this way encourages the member states of the United Nations to take steps to protect the species."

However, governmentsare up against resistance by private interests, even when efforts are made, Marcus said.

The butterfly's overwintering habitatsin South America are actually already under protection, and that is on display when the insects,tourists and wildlife officials are around.

"But in the off-season, when there are no butterflies around, the loggers will go into these stands of trees and they'll start taking down large trees," Marcus said. Better enforcement of those protections is necessary, he said.

In Canada and the United States, along the butterfly's migratory route, the issue is with thoseworking in agriculture who really don't want toan endangered species linked to their property because they don't want to putmitigation steps in place, he said.

"Landowners who rely on their property for income, of course, are very reluctant to have additional restraints on how they use their own property."

There has beenlarge-scale habitat loss due to changes in farming and the use of insecticides as well as herbicides that kill off milkweed, a key plantin the butterfly's survival, Petersen said.

Climate change isalso "playing havoc" with populations by altering the timing of when those plants are in the right stage for the butterflies to use them, he said.

"So we have this mismatch between what the insects want to do and what the plants that they rely on are doing."

Making the monarch a flagship conservation species would not only protect it butalso protect all of the habitats it relies on, "and that it ranges from roadsides here in Manitoba toits overwintering sites in Mexico," he said.

While the federal government has to add the monarch to the Species at Risk Act endangered list to give it legislated protection, there are thingsthe general public can do.

Grow flowers

Marcus and Petersen encourage people to grow wildflowers, milkweed andpatches of non-native plants that are good nectar plants for butterflies.

"I think it would be great, with people taking this really sad news, to turn it into something positive and turn it intoaction in their own garden," Petersen said.

Regular people who maintain habitats for both the caterpillars and the adults can help increase the number of monarch butterflies that emerge in Manitoba, Marcus said.

"And the more butterflies that start out the migration journey, the more butterflies actually arrive in Mexico at the overwintering sites. And the more butterflies that arrive at the overwintering sites, that increases the probability that a large number will be able to leave again to start in the next spring," he said.

"Taking the steps that are necessary in order to protect monarch butterflies are good for all sorts of reasons. It's good for our sense of well-being, but it's also good because by protecting monarchs, we wind up protecting all sorts of other things that share the habitats with monarchs."