Extinction: Casualties of the Anthropocene
The circle in the extinction symbol signifies the planet, the hourglass warns that time is running out. Estimates are that the Sixth Mass Extinction will claim 20% of plant and animal species within 25 years. This collection is made of 100% soda-lime flameworked glass beads.
10% of sales go to the Center for Biodiversity.
North Atlantic Right Whale Eubalaena glacialis
IUCN critically endangered
2021
3.2 x 1.83 x .87 in.
The second largest whale by mass, over 50 feet, 70 tons. Feed on zooplankton filtered by baleens. They are predated by humans, sharks and orcas.
The “right” whale to hunt-(coastal- easy to spot, had plentiful oil, swam slow, floated when dead.) Three species worldwide were hunted relentlessly since the 11th century for oil, baleen, and meat until protected in 1939. The Pacific species are still harvested for pharmaceuticals, health supplements, and meat. E. glacialis still face human persecution from ship collisions, entanglement in gillnets and lobster/snow crab trap lines, habitat loss (dredging/shipping), and noise (Naval sonar, seismic oil and gas exploration, shipping). With 400 of 15,000 historic population remaining, they are the most at-risk of all large whales.
Sea Otter Enhydra lutris
IUCN endangered
2021
1.65 x 2.81 x .80 in
A marine mammal in the Mustelidae family (weasels, badgers, wolverines, etc.),their lineage began 2 mya in coastal northern Japan and Russia, and arced across the North American coast to Baja. They are a keystone species that protect the kelp forest ecosystem from sea urchin overgrazing. Their mussel harvesting makes room for species diversity.They use a rock to dislodge and open the mollusks and crustaceans they prey on. Both rock and prey are stored in a pouch by their forearms. They anchor their young with kelp while foraging, and themselves while feeding and resting to keep from drifting out to sea.They are insulated by the thickest fur of any mammal, up to 1 million hairs per square inch. Their large lung capacity and air trapped in their fur make them buoyant.They take in over 25% of their body weight daily to keep warm, and can process seawater. The high energy demands of rearing young can be fatal to breeding otters. Only 25% of pups survive their first year; mothers have been known to carry their pups for days after they die. They are predated by orcas, sea lions, and bald eagles. Over half of mortality is by white shark bites. Other threats include malnutrition, conflicts with fisheries, poaching, drowning in fishing nets, contamination from sewage (notably cat feces) and agriculture runoff, accumulations of toxins from filter-feeding prey or oil spills that cause hypothermia and organ damage.Once abundant, they were systematically hunted to near extinction for their fur between 1741 and 1911, when they were finally protected. They’ve rebounded some but struggle to occupy 2/3rds of their former range.
Adolfo Ich Chaman
During its years of operation, EXMIBAL, a Canadian/US nickel mining consortium, had violently evicted Q'eqchi' communities in El Estor, Guatemala, paid virtually no taxes, gained contracts by assassinating local and national leaders*, and devastated natural resources. But the company retained the right to "sell" its mining concession to the highest bidder after the military "pacified" the country by massacring some 200,000 people, over 80% of them Maya, during the Genocidio guatemalteco from 1960-1996.
In 2006, the Mayan Q’eqchi’ started reoccupying their ancestral territories.. In late 2006, the mining company had local police evict the indigenous communities, burn hundreds of houses, attack the villagers, and gang-rape eleven women.
Adolfo Ich Chaman, a teacher and human rights defender in El Estor was murdered on 27 September 2009 by Ronaldo Padilla Gonzalez , security chief for Canadian mining company HudBay Minerals Inc., another international company involved in the El Estor nickel mine.
*Lawyer Julio Carney Herrerra was assassinated in November 1970. Adolfo Mijangos was assassinated in January 1971. Both were members of a commission opposed to the nickel mine.
Lesser Antillean iguana Iguana delicatissima
IUCN critically endangered
2020
3.25 in
A large (up to 15.5” head to vent, +31.5” tail) arboreal, herbivorous Caribbean endemic. One of two species in the genus Iguana, they expel excess potassium and sodium chloride through nasal gland. Males exude pheromones from femoral pores during breeding season. Once abundant, populations have experienced declines >70% and extirpations since European colonization. Threats include limited enforcement of protections, habitat loss (agriculture, development, invasives, overgrazing (goats/cows), road casualties, feral predators ( dogs, cats, mongooses), entanglement in fences, starvation/drowning in abandoned cisterns, competition and hybridization with invasive green iguana. No viable long-term populations exist.
Golden lancehead (fer-de-lance) Bothrops insularis
IUCN critically endangered
2020
2.75 in
Eleven thousand years ago, after the last Ice Age, sea levels rose. Stranded (or migrated) Bothrops pit vipers on 110-acre Ilha da Queimada Grande (Snake Island) off the Brazilian coast evolved into the endemic B.insularis species, developing a potent venom, killing almost instantly, to compensate for the inability to track winged prey. There are no mammals on Queimada (Portuguese for “burnt” since tropical forest was cleared for a banana plantation) so the 2,000+ snakes scale trees to envenomate primarily migratory birds- White-crested Elaenia in the fall, Yellow-legged Thrush in winter. They fast between the odd frog, lizard and fellow lancehead. The Brazilian Navy cleared vegetation to maintain the lighthouse, squeezing the population onto 10 acres. Though protected, B.insularis’ current threats are from flukes, ticks, inbreeding and biopirates selling to scientists in search of cures for cardiovascular diseases, and to collectors (who spend up to $30,000 per snake).
Koala Phascolarctos cinereus
IUCN vulnerable
2020
2.69 x 1.5 x .65 in
The koala (ash-colored pouch-bear), is an arboreal, herbivorous, asocial marsupial adapted to eucalyptus woodlands after E. Australian rainforest dried out c.5-20MYA. They’re monotypic; related to wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, and possums. When not sleeping (± 20 hrs/day), they dine on low-nutrition, toxic eucalyptus and other leaves. Their caecum and cytochrome P450 process toxins. Named ‘no drink’ by indigenous, their water needs are mostly met by diet and retention. They have a padded butt for buffering perches and falls, 4 opposable digits for gripping, small brain for, well, limited performance of unfamiliar tasks, and poor vision. They crawl over each other to reach perches and snarl at the insult. At 3 years, females keen hearing follow low-frequency bellows from distant males’ unique vocal chords. Males, 50% larger than females, may force themselves on females who scream, fight and attract more males who squabble as the female assesses them. Females have two vaginas and uteri but only bear one 2 cm newborn after 30+ days gestation. It crawls into pouch and nurses 6-7 months, then starts eating predigested faecal pap from mothers’ cloaca. They cling to mother's back; wean at 1 year and are driven away by mother. Eventually, their teeth wear down and they starve around 18 years.
Predators include dingos, pythons, owls, wedge-tailed eagles. They are most vulnerable when young or changing trees. Abundant before European settlers shot, poisoned and noosed >2.5M koalas to near extinction for pelts by 1928. Koalas continue to face habitat loss (development, agriculture, logging, fires), fragmentation (roads, RR), pollution, pesticides, cars, invasives (foxes, cats, dogs), and pathogens (Chlamydia, retrovirus). Drier conditions and fire suppression cause intense tree-killing crown-fires that trap slow-moving koalas. Drought, increased CO2 and fires reduce food quality and abundance causing overcrowding, population decline and lost genetic diversity. They don’t tolerate temperature extremes and heat waves can decimate their numbers.
Chico Mendes
2020
2.89 x 1.79 x .96 in
Brazilian rubber tapper and land rights leader Chico Mendes pioneered the concept of the extractive preserve- cooperation with government to provide healthcare, education and investment in sustainable alternatives for generating income to preserve forests managed by local communities. Basically, make the forest worth more alive than dead. He envisioned a global movement to preserve indigenous land rights and the environment. In 1988, at the age of 44, Mendes was assassinated in Xapuri, Acre in the Amazon by a rancher he had stopped from clearing the forest for grazing.
Cryptic Treehunter Cichlocolaptes mazarbarnetti
IUCN extinct
2020
2.627 in
Only recently described (2014) from a specimen from 1986 after being confused with the sympatric Alagoas foliage-gleaner Philydor novaesi, (first described in 1979 and last seen in 2011), this monotypic member of the Furnariidae family, or ovenbirds, named for their covered clay nests, was last sighted in 2007. It was declared extinct by the IUCN in 2019 from habitat destruction- subsistence and agro grazing and farming, and more frequent fires. These two endemic species were restricted to remnant humid forest in northeastern Brazil that has suffered one of the highest rates of deforestation in the Neotropics. Sadly, they blinked out, leaving a mystery as to their natural history and a hole in our hearts.
Fireflies Lampyridae sp.
IUCN report pending, declining worldwide
2020
2.12 x 1.31 x .31 in
Littoral larvae live underground, in bark or litter, and help control “pests” by feeding on worms, snails and slugs by injecting them with a numbing fluid. Nocturnal adults (not flies, but beetles) are pollinators found in fields, forests and marshes. They live up to 2 months. Not all fireflies have bioluminescence, but all larvae of those that do can also glow, presumably to warn predators of their toxicity. Adults feed on nectar or pollen, or don’t eat at all. Both sexes of many of the appx. 2000 species worldwide flash species-specific patterns to signal mates, defend territory and warn predators of their lucibufagin toxin. Females of some species mimic other species flashing to lure males to eat for their lucibufagin. Some synchronize their flashes en masse in spectacular displays that also attract Eco tourists.
Threats include habitat loss, herbicides, pesticides (that kill directly or their prey), pollution, unethical ecotourism (boat traffic, trapping, trampling), climate change, artificial light (direct and skyglow) that disrupts courtship, and invasive species. Though understudied, anecdotal evidence suggests that fireflies are among the “quiet apocalypse”, the 41% of insect species facing extinction.
Greta Thunberg
“I wan’t you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.”
California Condor Gymnogyps californianus
IUCN Critically endangered
2020
2.75 x 1.5 x .59 in
Carnivorous scavengers up to 31# with 9’8” wingspan. They are monotypic, of enigmatic taxa, and live up to 60 years. Their talons are adapted to walking and piercing thick hide. With no syrinx, they grunt and hiss. They’re intelligent, inquisitive, social, monogamous, fastidious (and groom each other), playful, and can recognize others. They roost and feed communally following a strict hierarchy. They roost where they can launch easily. They can soar up to 56 mph, 160 miles a day at 15,100’, searching for carrion by eye. Occasionally, their wingtips touch on the downstroke (double-dipping).
Males perform courtship solos, then in synchronized mated pairs. Both parents rear one chick every other year. The 4.7” egg incubates 2 months on a ledge, cave floor, redwood, or sequoia. Nestlings are fed by regurgitation, fledge at 6 months, and linger up to 2 years. Ravens, Golden Eagles, and bears feed on nestlings and eggs.
Populations declined from ingesting strychnine-laced carcasses from federal coyote control programs, ritual killings for shamanic clothing, hunting, egg collecting, poaching, lead poisoning (from eating shot animals or gut piles), DDT, collisions with power lines, diminished mega-fauna food source, habitat fragmentation and destruction. By 1940’s their range that once spanned N. America was reduced to coastal southern and central California. In 1987, the 27 remaining condors were placed into captive breeding. Most nestling mortality is from ingesting trash fed by their parents. Lead causes >60% of adult mortality. One of the rarest creatures on earth, there are now over 300 in the wild (mostly captive-bred), and 200 captives.
Polar Bear Ursus maritimus
IUCN vulnerable, USFS threatened
2019
2.62 in
The “maritime bear” rebounded from near extinction due to centuries of “harvesting” after conservation measures were implemented mid-twentieth century (the IACPB of 1973 was the only Cold War agreement), only to face poaching and starvation from habitat loss due to climate change and oil and gas development. There is a projected 30-66% decline by 2050. These indicator marine mammals, which depend on sea ice to hunt seals, can weigh up to 1,543 pounds. They can breed with brown bears, overheat >50 °F, and have transparent (not white) guard hairs. They are solitary yet develop friendships and play together for hours. Females have adopted orphan cubs which may hum while nursing. They cache food and don’t hibernate. They can swim underwater for 3 minutes, and for hundreds of miles in frigid waters. Early sea ice melt forces them to swim further, depleting their energy reserves. It reduces den sites and lowers reproductive rates, increases offspring mortality and human-bear interactions.
Bornean Orangutan Pongo pygmaeus
IUCN critically endangered
2020
2.56 x 1.5 x .62 in
This bead depicts a heartbreaking scene of an orangutan attacking a digger, from a 2013 video by International Animal Rescue in Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Orangutans are opportunistic foragers, mostly fruit and the occasional loris. Male cheek pads and “long calls” that attract females and intimidate rivals only develop at 15-20 years in the absence of a dominant male. Fertile females can consume 11k calories per day. Females mature at 14 years. Gestation lasts 9 months with 8 year intervals. Young cling to mother’s chest 2 years, wean at 4 years, and stay with mothers to learn and help with next generation. They make and use tools, including to amplify vocalization, and construct elaborate nests nightly. They use Commelina as an anti-inflammatory balm. They have distinctive cultures within populations.
Orangutan habitat, the biologically diverse Bornean/Sumatran rainforests, has been decimated on an industrial scale by human greed, corruption, ignorance and desperation, leaving a broken ecosystem and countless endangered species. Land is burned (rivaling the Amazon and Australian fires of 2019-20) or clear-cut for timber (plywood, paper, pulp), crops notably palm oil (snacks, make-up, soap, ironically biofuel), mining (gold, coal), dams, canals.
Orangutans ("man of the forest"), left to starve amidst the devastation, are further threatened by roads (fragmentation), pollution (mining), poaching (by poisons, AK-47s and explosives) for bushmeat, crop protection, traditional medicine, and to kidnap infants (which often die) for illegal pet trade. 3 species of Ponginae, all critically endangered, split from the African apes c.16 MYA. This could be the end of the road for these intelligent, arboreal primates without support from the global community.
Winona LaDuke Thunderbird Woman, Bear Clan
MAGA- “When we had #agribiodiversity, 50 million buffalo, 8,000 varieties of corn, passenger pigeons that blackened the sky and you could drink the water from every creek and river.””…why [does] wanting clean drinking water make you an activist, and destroying water with chemical warfare doesn’t make a corporation a terrorist?”
waterprotector honortheearth rights of manoomin renewableenergy nativeseeds regenerativeeconomy winonas hemp white earth land recovery sustainability resist DAPL reforestation
Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Empidonax trailii extimus
IUCN Critically endangered
2019
2.20 x 1.41 x .54
This 1/2 oz. neotropical migrant breeds in dense riparian habitat throughout the southwest and winters as far as Colombia. Their population has declined precipitously due to 90% habitat loss and degradation (dams, water diversion, groundwater pumping, channelization, overgrazing, ORV’s, wildfires, urbanization) as well as brood parasitism from brown-headed cowbirds whose populations have increased from irrigated agriculture and livestock grazing.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus americanus
IUCN LC. USFS threatened
2019
2.94 in
Neotropic migrants, Yellow-billed Cuckoos have one of the latest and shortest nesting cycles, from egg to fledge in as few as 17 days, following the emergence of their preferred prey- caterpillars (including those typically avoided species with urticating hairs). Asynchronous egg laying staggers nestling growth. Males may remove youngest nestling if food is scarce. Both parents share nesting duties. The male offers nest material whenever he takes his turn, which the female adds to the nest. They winter in S. America. The distinct western U.S. population has been nearly eradicated due to the loss of large, contiguous, multilayered riparian forest galleries preferred for nesting to dams, diversions, grazing, channeling, residential development, ground-water pumping, agriculture, flood control, pesticides, and nonnative plant invasions. Listed endangered after protracted struggle with USFS, now the proposal to protect more than a half-million acres in nine western states is itself threatened by livestock and mining industry pressure to end protections.
Jaguar Panthera onca
IUCN Near threatened
2019
This monotypic cat evolved in Asia 6-10MYA, and entered the Americas 2.5-0.7MYA via Beringia. Modern cats are 79-348#, 4- 6’ long and 25-30” tall. They prefer wetlands and dense rainforest but can survive in arid and open habitat. They are apex predators, often sympatric with cougars. As a keystone species, they regulate prey base. They are solitary, mostly crepuscular, with large territories (15-25 square miles). They are the third largest cat, after lion and tiger, and can haul an 800# bull or sea turtle, and crush a tortoise shell. They can consume up to 55# at one feeding. Females rear young, avoiding males for fear of infanticide. Cubs are weaned at 3 months, den for six months, then hunt with mother until they disperse at 1-2 years. They live 12–15 years. Though carnivorous, they sometimes eat Banisteriopsis caapi root, a hallucinogenic (DMT) that may heighten their senses for the hunt.
They ranged from Louisiana to Monterey, from the Grand Canyon to most of South America. Since the early 20th-century, jaguars have been decimated by fur hunters and habitat loss. About 15,000 were killed annually in the sixties in the Amazon and shipped mostly to Germany and the US. Even with protections, jaguars are rapidly declining. Largely extirpated from the US but for rare sightings in AZ and NM, Trumps border wall will most likely end these sightings. They’ve been extirpated from El Salvador and Uruguay and are found mainly in remote regions of S. and Central Am. notably the Amazon. Major threats include deforestation (ranching, soy for cattle feed and other crops, logging), poaching, hurricanes and conflicts with ranchers and farmers. Habitat fragmentation constricts the gene pool. They are umbrella species. Protecting their habitat covers myriad other species.
Hawksbill Sea Turtle Eretmochelys imbricate
IUCN critically endangered
2020
2.69 in
Circumtropical (excluding the Mediterranean) coastal omnivores with a penchant for sea sponges, hawksbills grow to 4 feet,150 pounds and live up to 50 years. The only sea turtle with clawed flippers, they migrate up to 1,160 miles between nesting and foraging. Juvenile turtles shelter in pelagic algal mats, then migrate to coastal feeding grounds (coral reefs, mangrove estuaries). Between 20-35 years of age, females return to their birthplace and every two to five years lay about 140 eggs in each of 3-5 nests per season. They practice shelter site fidelity.
Hundreds of years of harvesting hawksbill turtles for their shell nearly drove them to extinction. Now despite CITES protection, threats include habitat loss from coastal development and loss of coral reefs (climate change), entanglement, tortoise shell exploitation, poaching for the wildlife trade, turtle meat and eggs, vessel strikes, pollution (ingesting debris -fishing line, balloons, plastics, and chemicals), unethical ecotourism, artificial light, beach buggies, etc.
Homero Gómez González, Monarch Protector
2020
2.89 x 1.77 x 1.14 in
Stressed by habitat loss as their obligate host plant, milkweed, is decimated by agriculture, development, and herbicides, endangered Monarch butterflies are funneled from their North American summer breeding grounds up to 2000 miles to dwindling preserves in California and Mexico. El Rosario, a sanctuary high in the Michoacán cloud forest with its towering oyamel firs, is perennially threatened by loggers, avocado farming, and climate change. Homero Gómez González, a former logger, believed that eco-tourism offered a more sustainable income. He managed El Rosario and was a fearless ambassador for and protector of these charismatic lepidopteran. On January 13, 2020 he was tortured and dumped in a well, killed by illegal loggers.
Vaquita Phocoena sinus
IUCN Critically endangered
2019
“Little cow” has the smallest range (the northern Gulf of California), and size (4.5'), of any marine mammal. They live on small fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods up to 21 years. They use high-pitched sounds to communicate and echolocation to navigate and locate prey. They have no close relatives and are the only warm water porpoise.
Threats to the most endangered marine mammal are drowning as bycatch in both poachers totoaba (another endangered species) gillnets for the Chinese black market that fetch up to $8,500/swim bladder kg, as well as shrimp gillnets and trawl nets. With an estimated one dozen extant, they also face inbreeding and the bottleneck effect. Captivity, let alone captive breeding, is futile.
Humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae
IUCN Least concern
2019
2.75 x 1.5 x .55 in
Megaptera novaeangliae can grow up to 62’ long with 20’ pectoral fins, up to 30 metric tons and live up to 100 years. Males have complex songs lasting 10-20 minutes and repeated up to 24 hours. All the males in an area sing the same song which changes over time and is different from other worldwide populations. Humpbacks socialize with other cetaceans (a male was observed singing an unknown song while approaching a fin whale at Rarotonga in 2014) and are known to defend other sea animals against predators. They can migrate up to 16,000 miles annually. They were hunted to near extinction for oil, baleen and meat beginning in the 17th century, with a 90% global loss in the 20th century alone, down to 5,000. They have recovered since a 1966 moratorium but are still threatened by drowning in fishing gear, ship strikes, sea warming, Saxitoxin, pollution (plastic, oil, chemicals, sewage), and noise (shipping, military sonar [see Sonic Sea], oil and gas exploration).
Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis
IUCN Declared extinct by the USFWS 9 October 2021. The last confirmed sighting was in 1944. 2019
The Ghost bird or Lord God bird is one of the largest woodpeckers in the world - 20” long, 30” wingspan, 2.9” bill. Native to thick hardwood swamps and pine forests of S.E. US. Rampant logging of primeval hardwood forests since the Civil War, as well as hunting and collecting, led to their extinction. The last confirmed sighting was in 1944 on the last old-growth habitat, owned by the Singer Sewing Company, which chose logging over preservation. Various purported evidence since contributes to much speculation but no consensus. Ivory-billed woodpeckers were long-lived (30+ years), monogamous, cooperative breeders, and at times social. Their body parts, including dried heads and bills, were treasured by indigenous and settlers alike as amulets and adornment.
Paulo Paulino Guajajara
2020
On 1 November 2019, Paulo Paulino Guajajara, a leader of the Guajajara Indigenous group, was assassinated at age 26 by illegal loggers who invaded his land in Brazil.
Guajajara was a victim of humans’ insatiable consumption of natural resources. Multinational corporations emboldened by lax environmental regulations and corruption supply the market created by wealthy nations and throw-away societies. Bolsonaro’s Brazil epitomizes the rampant destruction of indigenous lands worldwide.
Black-footed Ferret Mustela nigripes
IUCN Endangered
2019
2.25 in
Once considered extinct in the wild, Black-footed Ferrets were one of the first captive-bred reintroductions of an endangered species. Prairie dogs, their primary prey and a keystone species, lost 95% of their historic range due to eradication efforts by poison, plowing, industrial vacuum, fumigation, and shooting to make room for cattle, crops, oil and gas and other development starting in the 1800’s. Introduced canine distemper is another threat to both prairie dogs and ferrets.
Gorilla G. beringei, G. gorilla
IUCN Critically endangered
2019
Two species (4 ssp.) separated 466 miles by the Congo River, live 30-40 years in lowland, swamp and montane forests in 10 countries (e. central and equatorial west Africa). There are considerable differences between the species but all gorillas synchronize activities, alternating rest, travel and feeding. Their home ranges are 1.16- 5.79 mi² in a variety of habitats from 1,969-10,853’. Troops led by a silverback move to food sources daily. Adults can eat up to 40# of food daily, primarily leaves (with a penchant for bamboo shoots), ants, and termites. Gorillas, weighing up to 400#, are gentle, mischievous, generally peaceful, and sometimes sympatric with chimpanzees. Mature at 8, females leave their troop to find a mate. Young nurse up to 3 years and stay close to mothers 4-6 years.
Gorilla population has declined dramatically, with almost half the eastern gorilla wiped out. Threats include poaching, incidental trapping, illegal pet trade (which often kills several gorillas for each kidnapped baby), and habitat loss. Coltran (columbite-tantalite) is mined in DRC for capacitors in cell phones, computers, automotive electronics, hearing aids, pacemakers, mp3 players, hard drives, high-temperature alloys for jet engines and turbines, refractive lenses for glasses, cameras, and printers. “Resource curses”-timber, gold, diamonds, cassiterite (tin, gemstone), wolframite (tungsten) and coltran- cause military occupation, colonization, corruption, smuggling, civil war, human trafficking, erosion, pollution, hazardous working conditions, deforestation, displacement, and subsistence hunting of gorillas and elephants by miners. Epidemics such as Ebola virus have also decimated gorilla populations.
Captain Paul Watson
Co-founder Greenpeace, Founder Sea Shepherd
2020
3.3 x 1.98 x 1.06 in
“Sustainable seafood is a fraud. It’s a marketing term that really means ‘business as usual’.”
“Stop eating the ocean. There is no such thing as a sustainable fishery. If people eat meat, make sure it’s organic and isn’t contributing to the destruction of the ocean because 40 percent of all fish caught out of the ocean is fed to livestock – chickens on factory farms are fed fish meal. And be cognizant of the fact that if the oceans die, we die. Our ultimate responsibility is to protect biodiversity in our world’s oceans.”
Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
IUCN Least concern (determination was from 2013. Monarchs have declined drastically since then.
20 x 8.25 x 3.25 in
Three species of monarchs, named for King William III, Prince of Orange, are found on both hemispheres. Bright, contrasting colors of larvae and adult are aposematic—warning predators of toxic cardiac glycosides derived from the larval milkweed diet. Their gold-dotted jade-colored chrysalis turn transparent after 8–15 days, revealing the butterfly before it ecloses. Adults are nectivorous pollinators. Their similarity to the viceroy is an example of Müllerian mimicry. Monarchs live 2-5 weeks during their breeding season while migrating adults live around 7 months. Fewer than 10% survive to breed. The eastern N. Am. monarchs migrate thousands of miles in the fall from as far as southern Canada to sites in Mexico, orienting by UV polarized light. They take up to 5 generations to return north in the spring, each larval stage requiring five instars which increase weight 2,000 times from first instar. The first generation breeds and dies while its young continue the journey north.
Since 1990, nearly a billion monarchs have vanished from their wintering sites, possibly from the use of glyphosates on GMO corn and soybeans which kills milkweed. Most of the Midwest milkweed habitat is gone, along with the tall-grass prairie. Their wintering ground is threatened by illegal logging and avocado farms. In early 2020, environmental activist Homero Gómez González and preserve tour guide Raúl Hernández Romero were murdered within a week near the monarch reserve in Michoacán, Mexico. Other threats are traffic fatalities (millions annually), cold spells and pesticides.
