As of 2019 the butterfly had become regionally extinct over much of its former range in the UK. The population size in the UK had decreased by 60% over the period during which records have been kept. Human activities such as modern farming altered their main habitat – England's damp meadows – and have changed the climate as well. This loss of major habitats has led to fragmentation and isolation of "E. aurinia" populations, thus leading to metapopulation formation. "E. aurinia" is more vulnerable to extinction in the small subpopulations that comprise the metapopulation.