Uncompahgre Fritillary

More about Uncompahgre Fritillary

The Uncompahgre fritillary was thought to be on the edge of extinction and was added to the Endangered Species List in 1991.[5] Since then, early monitoring programs have found a number of additional populations in the San Juan Mountains but the small numbers detected at each of these locations remain inadequate for delisting.[5] Predicted threats to this species and alpine tundra ecosystems include: grazing, illegal collection, recreation, and climate change, with an additional threat is the possibility of low genetic variability between the known butterfly populations.[1]

The impacts of global climate change pose concerns to this species and alpine environments overall. Alpine environments are the coldest locations where pollinator species can still occur but the sensitive species of plants, insects, and animals found within these ecosystems might not have the ability to adapt to changes in temperatures and precipitation patterns.[10]