Monarch butterflies flutter closer toward extinction

Monarch populations have gone down between 22% and 72% over the past 10 years, one global environmental group estimates.

Monarch butterfly
Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press
Monarch butterfly
Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press

Monarch butterflies flutter closer toward extinction

Monarch populations have gone down between 22% and 72% over the past 10 years, one global environmental group estimates.

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The International Union for Conservation of Nature has declared the monarch butterfly as endangered. Chicagoans are seeing firsthand how sparse the local summer population has become, but the black-and-orange butterfly is still not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Reset turns to a local entomology expert to learn more.

GUEST: Allen Lawrence, associate curator of entomology at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum