IUCN’s First Global Assessment of Dragonflies Found that Many Species Could Face Extinction

Habitat Loss is Contributing to the Decline of Dragonflies Around the World

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently released their latest Red List of Threatened Species update, which included the first global assessment of dragonflies. Findings from the assessment revealed that damage to wetlands and rivers is contributing to the decline of dragonfly species around the world, putting one in six species at risk of extinction.

Dragonflies are of great interest to Butterfly Pavilion for conservation action and future restoration efforts. Although a few organizations raise dragonfly nymphs, none in the United States have been able to maintain these animals through their entire breeding cycle. Butterfly Pavilion is planning its own breeding program for dragonflies through conducting research to understand the husbandry of these insects and then maintaining them under human care as a part of the conservation of these species in the wild. Eventually, Butterfly Pavilion would like to create a dragonfly exhibit. Meeting this goal will help our organization on our mission to become an industry leader in invertebrate husbandry.

Beyond this propagation under human care, Butterfly Pavilion conservationists are also conducting fieldwork on dragonflies to better understand their population dynamics, habitat associations, and distributions. Eventually, we hope to work to restore locally uprooted populations and expand existing ones. In 2018, Butterfly Pavilion also began a citizen science project to monitor dragonfly populations in Colorado. These types of projects not only gather important ecological information but also help educate and engage the public in conservation and research projects.

We invite you to join us in these efforts by supporting Butterfly Pavilion on our journey to build and open a new, world-class facility that will serve as the global hub for invertebrate research, education, and conservation. You can learn more about how to support Butterfly Pavilion and our mission on our website!