Project Monarch

Download this informational flier

What is Project Monarch?

After years of anticipation, it's finally here

For years we'rve dreamed of a tiny radio transmitter that was light enough to put on a monarch to follow it to the overwintering sites. The largest obstacle was always weight! Monarchs in our region weigh at most around 0.50 grams. Any transmitter was just too heavy, but continuing progress has enabled Cellular Tracking Technologies to create a tiny solar powered Bluetooth transmitter for monarch butterflies. Cape May Point Science Center created an app so your smart phone can now track these radio-tagged monarchs up to about ¼ mile away.

How can you participate?

Photo courtesy Cape May Point Science Center

Beginning in mid-October 2024, the Southwest Monarch Study will begin field testing the new BlüMorpho radio tags developed by Cellular Tracking Technologies on several monarch butterflies in the greater Phoenix area as well as in other locations. But we need YOUR HELP to track them! Over the next few years, new receivers will be added to Motus towers around the Southwest as well as special nodes to pick up their signals. But for the first year your smart phone will be the only way to track radio tagged monarchs to test this new technology and its viability. Can you help? Download the free app today!

The BlüMorpho radio tags are expensive as most new technology items are. Each individual tag costs $175.00 so we are being selective regarding the monarchs we choose to carry the tags to their overwintering site. The only monarchs that will be tagged are those that pass their "physical" with excellent wing condition and a weight meeting our requirements. We hope you will join us and download the Project Monarch app on your smart phone. Turn it on to scan for monarchs when you are outside working in your yard or hiking, birding, anything in natural areas especially if you see monarchs. When you hear the "ping" of a radio-tagged monarch, be sure to upload the sighting so we can track monarchs through Arizona this fall through spring.

Suppport

Our test of the new BlüMorpho tags is made possible by donations to the Southwest Monarch Study, a nonprofit organization, and the Xerces Society. The Desert Botanical Garden provides additional funding from a grant they received through the Arizona Lottery. Your donation to the Southwest Monarch Study will help us to continue testing and improving this leading edge technology to track monarch butterflies. Your data will enable us to improve habitats for their population expansion.

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