LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Scientists have put the monarch butterfly on the endangered list because of its fast-dwindling numbers.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered,” which is two steps removed from extinct.

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The group estimates that the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined up to 72 percent in the past 10 years.