For years, tracking monarch butterflies with tags required luck, hoping someone would find and report the tiny sticker on a wing along the migration route. This year, Nature NB has introduced a new method to eliminate the guesswork.
The organization collaborated with the Saint John Naturalist Club, Point Lepreau Bird Observatory, and Environment and Climate Change Canada to deploy Bluetooth-enabled tags on monarchs in New Brunswick. Francie Morgan, program co-ordinator at Nature NB, described this move as an exciting advancement in monarch conservation in the Maritimes.
The BluMorpho tags, weighing only 0.066 grams and solar-powered, are attached to the butterfly’s thorax using eyelash glue. Unlike traditional wing tags that rely on physical recapture, BluMorpho tags operate through passive Bluetooth interactions. When individuals with Bluetooth on their phones come within 100 meters of a tagged monarch, data is automatically recorded.
Jim Wilson, a birder and naturalist at the Point Lepreau Bird Observatory, emphasized the significance of this technological shift. He highlighted the previous method’s reliance on luck for someone to find and report a numbered wing tag, contrasting it with the current online system that allows real-time tracking of the monarchs’ locations.
Last year, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Birds Canada initiated the use of this technology in southern Ontario. Nature NB secured funding from the Environmental Trust Fund of New Brunswick and received additional tags from the federal government. Despite some delays at the border, the organization aims to deploy 22 tags this season, with the potential for more pending clearance of the remaining shipment.
Preliminary data has already provided valuable insights into monarch migration patterns in New Brunswick. The tags confirmed Point Lepreau as a crucial stopover point for monarchs en route to Grand Manan. Additionally, unexpected occurrences, like monarchs ending up in Nova Scotia due to strong westerly winds, have shed light on how environmental factors influence their migration decisions.
Tracking individual migration routes could help identify key natural corridors that monarchs heavily rely on, aiding conservation efforts. Anyone can monitor the tagged monarchs by downloading the Project Monarch app, with tags in New Brunswick starting with the prefix PLBO. Nature NB anticipates tagging 22 monarchs in the province by the season’s end.