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| Monarch Butterfly |
I received
an email from EDF. EDF stands for
Environmental Defense Fund. The Fund is based in Washington D.C.The email is
saying that the population of the Monarch Butterfly has declined by an
incredible 90% to 95% in the past two decades (1996- 2016). And this is because
of habitat loss and pesticide use.
The monarch
butterfly is not listed as an endangered species by the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
CITES is a United Nations convention. It is an international agreement between
governments. Its goal is to make sure that trade in types of wild fauna and
flora does not threaten their survival.
However,
moves are being made by concerned groups to get endangered species protection
for the monarch butterfly. For example, the Centre for Biological Diversity and
the Centre for Food Safety submitted a legal request to the United States
Department of the Interior for protection of the monarch butterfly and its
habitat under the Endangered Species Act on August 14, 2014. The monarch butterfly is regarded as a Species
of Special Concern in Ontario.
Now, the
Environmental Defense Fund is campaigning for farmers, ranchers and forestland
owners to restore the habitat (the Monarch super highway which once stretched
from Mexico to the north eastern states of the United States of America) of the
Monarch butterfly by planting milkweed, host plant of the monarch butterfly.
The milkweed
plant is well known as a plant that attracts butterflies. Monarch butterflies
deposit their eggs on milkweed plants. The milkweed plant is a host of the
Monarch butterfly caterpillar. The common milkweed plant is classified as Asclepias
syriaca.
Ensuring a
sustainable clean and balanced natural environment which is the vision of this
blog is a shared responsibility involving Environmental Defense Fund, among
others. The shared responsibility entails interdependence and mutual
cooperation and support.
Deriving
from the spirit of the foregoing, I am going to look at the issue from the
perspective of the imbalance created by the drastic decline in the population
of the Monarch butterfly.
The monarch
butterfly is a famous and popular butterfly. Apart from Mexico and North
Eastern United States of American the Monarch butterfly can be found in the
Caribbean, Canada and other places. The monarch butterfly is a pollinator. The
monarch has six legs, but uses its middle and hind legs as the fore legs are a
remnant. The monarch is noted for its long distance migration.
There are
three (3) types of monarch butterfly as follows:
Danaus
plexipplus- monarch butterfly of North America.
Danaus
erippus- the southern monarch found in South America.
Danaus
creophile- Jamaican monarch, found from Jamaica to Hispaniola.
Some states
in the United States of America have the monarch as their state insect. The
states are Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Vermont, Texas and Minnesota. The United
States of America as whole nearly adopted the monarch as a national insect.
Why so much
fuss about the monarch butterfly? What does the monarch butterfly do for the
environment? The answers are as follows:
- Butterflies are life forms on planet Earth and are an integral part of the biodiversity
- Butterflies in general are used as model to investigate population dynamics and biodiversity.
- The long study of the butterfly provides data source for scientific research on climate change.
- Presence of butterflies show that an environment and ecosystem are healthy.
- An environment rich in butterflies is an indicator that it is rich in other invertebrates. Such an environment lends itself to pollination and pest control.
- Butterfly and moth are important in the food chain, serving as prey for birds, bats etc.
So far I
have shown that stock of the monarch butterfly is depleting, and for that
matter concerned groups are fighting for a relook at its status, reversal of
the depletion, and consequently its restoration. I have also shown the benefits
of the butterfly, for that matter the monarch butterfly, to the natural environment.
Drawing
material from what I stated so far, I should logically proceed to speak on the
imbalance the depleting stock of the monarch butterfly is causing to the
natural environment.
Dealing with
the benefits, I indicated that butterflies (for that matter monarch butterflies)
as life forms on planet Earth are an integral part of the biodiversity. If
something is an integral part of the whole, when that part is taken away from
the whole, the rest can no more be a whole, an imbalance should be created.
This is exactly what the stock depletion of the monarch butterfly is causing to
the natural environment because the biodiversity is inextricably dependent on
the natural environment. Imbalances in the natural environment manifest
themselves in erratic rainfall patterns, floods, melting icebergs, global
warming etc.
The monarch
butterfly is a pollinator as I have indicated. Pollination is part of sexual
reproduction in plants. What the butterfly does is to carry pollen grain from
the male and deposit it on the female plant or female part. The pollen grain
contains, if you like, the sperm (DNA) which should have contact with the
female ovary (DNA) for fertilization to take place. The result is that seed is
formed. So without the monarch butterfly to initiate pollination there will be
no seed to produce, and without the seed plants should have nothing to grow
from. This is a serious imbalance. You know why? Because plants take carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis, and release oxygen into the
atmosphere, the oxygen you and I breathe in. Because of the shortage of monarch
butterflies pollination has been reduced resulting in depletion of the
milkweed. Reducing stock of plants results in accumulation of excessive carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere, because there are not enough plants to absorb the
carbon dioxide. It is a vicious circle, and for that matter imbalance.
In
conclusion, the natural environment is a delicately intricate interconnect, if
one hurts a small part of it, the whole system feels it. Take the human body
for example, if you stuck a pin in your small finger the whole body should feel
it, because of the nervous system. Tampering with a relatively small and
delicate life form like the monarch butterfly should indeed create imbalance in
the natural environment as indicated. The efforts of groups like the
Environmental Defense Fund and concerned individuals ought to be given all the
support required to restore the monarch butterfly to its normal status to
advance towards a sustainable clean and balanced natural environment as
envisioned by this blog. It is also a fight to possibly reclaim and restore all
life forms to their normal status.
Reference:
http://butterfly-conservation.org/45/why-butterflies-matter.html
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