""We want to identify what a monarch's overwintering path looks like," said Ashley Fisher of the Xerces Society, which works on the conservation of insects and other invertebrates."
""These tags started out big enough for turkey vultures. Then songbirds. Now, they're light enough for a monarch," Fisher said."
"Through the Project Monarch app, available for iPhone or Android, anyone with a smartphone can assist researchers in monitoring migration patterns by scanning their surroundings. If a Blu+ tagged butterfly flutters within a 100-yard range, the phone detects the signal and uploads data to a central database. Those data points will help unveil how monarchs move about in overwintering sites like Santa Cruz."
Blu+ ultra-light Bluetooth tags enable citizen scientists in California to track western monarch butterfly movements by detecting tagged individuals via smartphones running the Project Monarch app. Phones scan surroundings and record signals from Blu+ tags within a roughly 100-yard range, uploading detections to a central database for researchers. The data will help reveal overwintering paths and factors that prompt monarchs to abandon or remain at overwintering groves. Western monarchs migrate along fragmented coastal routes to California groves and are particularly vulnerable to local habitat changes, making widespread community tracking valuable for conservation.
Read at The Mercury News
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