A 60-milligram transmitter is revealing how monarch butterflies migrate from Canada to Mexico
The tiny transmitter tracking monarch butterflies' migration, Canada to Mexico
A solar-powered BlūMorpho tag, glued to a monarch's thorax with eyelash glue, weighs about three grains of rice and pings every second on 2.4 GHz. Any nearby phone with Bluetooth on relays the signal, letting the public follow individual butterflies on Project Monarch's app. One tagged male, Eddie, covered 1,258 kilometres to Kansas before going silent; another reached Mexico in 40 days. The data pinpoints nectar stops and deadly gaps, guiding volunteer waystations.
Getting migration data is like the Holy Grail to piecing together a monarch's full life cycle.
- sciurus
> The transmitter lets out a signal every second on 2.4 gigahertz, which is in the frequency range of Bluetooth receivers. Any smartphone or tablet within 100 meters of a BlūMorpho will acknowledge the signal and pass it on to the Project Monarch server, whether it has the app downloaded on it or not, provided Location Services and Bluetooth are turned on.
Is this accurate? If so, I am really curious how this works. Are they effectively sticking Airtags on butterflies?
- CSSer
This subject was on here a while back, but this is the first article with truly engaging photos of the transmitter and the process of application up-close. This is super cool! I was/am surprised no one has talked about the espionage implications of something like this. You really can put a track on anything.
- ungreased0675
Truly impressive technology. I would have been very confident it was impossible to put an RF tracker on a butterfly.