New Bluetooth tags let anyone track monarch butterfly migration in real time

A monarch fitted with a solar-powered Blue Morpho tag feeds on goldenrod. The tags allow anyone with Bluetooth enabled on their phone to log the butterfly's location. (Submitted by Francie Morgan)Social SharingFor years tracking a tagged monarch butterfly relied on luck, on someone, somewhere along the migration route, finding the tiny sticker on a wing of the insect and reporting it.

This year Nature NB is using new technology that removes the guesswork entirely.

The organization deployed Bluetooth enabled tags on monarchs for the first time in New Brunswick this season, working in partnership with the Saint John Naturalist Club, Point Lepreau Bird Observatory and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“It's a very exciting new chapter in the monarch conservation world in the Maritimes,” said Francie Morgan, program co-ordinator with Nature NB.

Francie Morgan holds a monarch fitted with a BluMorpho tag ahead of its release. (Submitted by Francie Morgan)The tags, called BluMorpho tags, are solar-powered and weigh about 0.066 grams — a small fraction of a monarch's roughly half-gram body weight.

They attach to the butterfly's thorax using a dab of eyelash glue, with a small antenna running along the length of the abdomen.

Unlike traditional wing tags, which depend on physical recapture to generate data, theBluMorpho tags work through passive Bluetooth interactions.

Anyone with Bluetooth enabled on their phone who comes within 100 metres of a tagged monarch will automatically log a data point.

The BluMorpho tag weighs about 0.066 grams and is attached with a dab of eyelash glue. Details including capture time and sex are recorded before release. (Submitted by Francie Morgan)“Download the Project Monarch app, scan for these tags and follow along on the journey of these monarchs,” Morgan said.

Jim Wilson, a birder and naturalist with the Point Lepreau Bird Observatory who has been tagging butterflies for years, said the shift is significant.

"The old method was simply to put a numbered wing tag on and hope somebody would find it or see it and report it between here and Mexico," Wilson said. "This is now online, you can go on there and find out where that monarch is."

Jim Wilson, Jean Wilson and Janet Kempster carefully tag a monarch at Point Lepreau Bird Observatory. (Submitted by Francie Morgan)The technology was first used on monarchs in Canada last year through a partnership between Environment and Climate Change Canada and Birds Canada in southern Ontario.

Nature NB applied for funding once that pilot proved successful, receiving support from the Environmental Trust Fund of New Brunswick and 10 additional tags directly from the federal government.

The organization had hoped for 35 tags this season, but delays at the border have complicated things.

“Half of our tags are stuck at the border,” Morgan said. Nature NB expects to deploy 22 tags by the end of the season, with the possibility of 13 more if the remaining shipment clears in time.

Wilson said similar problems affected his team’s supply, and about eight of its 30 tags remain tied up in customs because of tariffs.

Early data has already offered new insight into monarch migration routes through the province.

Point Lepreau, which juts into the Bay of Fundy, has long been suspected as a key stopover point for monarchs before they continue down the Eastern Seaboard toward Grand Manan. The new tags have confirmed that pattern.

“We’ve already had three that have left there with the BluMorpho tags and ended up on Grand Manan,” Morgan said.

Program coordinator Brie Blair holds a monarch butterfly before it's release at Point Lepreau Bird Observatory. (Submitted by Francie Morgan)Strong westerly winds this season also produced an unexpected result, three tagged monarchs ended up in Nova Scotia instead of continuing south, offering researchers new information about how wind conditions influence migration decisions.

“That would be some very new information," Morgan said. "We're waiting to see."

Wilson said tracking individual migration routes could help identify which natural corridors — mountain ranges, river valleys, coastlines — monarchs rely on most, allowing conservationists to prioritize protecting those areas.

“All monarchs need in their long trip to Mexico is the ability to find blooming plants from which they get nectar,” Wilson said. “If we know how and where they go over time, those roads can be preserved and hopefully enhanced.”

Anyone can follow the tagged monarchs by downloading the free Project Monarch app. Tags deployed in New Brunswick begin with the prefix PLBO, for Point Lepreau Bird Observatory.

By the end of the season, Nature NB expects 22 monarchs in the province will have been tagged with the new technology.

Jennifer William is a journalist with CBC New Brunswick and is based in Fredericton. She can be reached at jennifer.william@cbc.ca.