SAVE THE US NATIONAL BUTTERFLY CENTER

Swathes of a 100-acre butterfly sanctuary along the Rio Grande in Texas are to be bulldozed to make way for Donald Trump’s US-Mexico border wall, putting endangered species at risk of extinction, experts have warned.

Marianna Wright, the sanctuary’s executive director, said 70 per cent of the land belonging to the centre will end up on the other side of the border wall.

The wall could be up to three-stories tall, with 18-foot steel beams rising from a concrete base. Construction through the refuge could start in February, according to the San-Antonio Express News.