Researchers are urging Canada, United States and Mexico to take immediate action to save the monarch butterfly as the migratory insect faces a growing risk of extinction amid habitat loss.

The iconic butterfly’s population has decreased by around 80 per cent in the past two decades, says the paper published in the journal Current Biology, with the loss of breeding habitat cited as the main reason behind the sharp decline.

Migrating monarch butterflies fly thousands of kilometres between Central Mexico, where they spend the winter, the United States and Canada every year. It’s a unique and miraculous journey for a creature that weighs less than a gram.

Experts estimate the population of the eastern North American monarch butterfly by measuring the area of forest they occupy in their over

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