Monarch Migration - Tracking Monarch Butterfly Migration

Monarch migration is a science research tool for tracking the migration behavior of monarch butterflies. Its primary function is to allow users to quickly enter location information and flight characteristics (body direction and flight direction) for upload to a cloud-based server. The directional data is gathered from the mobile devices compass. Georeferencing and time is gathered from the devices OS. There are two projects this will support:

Marine Monarchs: a focused program to study how monarch butterflies use offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. This is project is run by Dr. Tracy Villareal at the University of Texas, Austin. The program is described at https://sites.cns.utexas.edu/marine_monarchs. Observations are needed in the September to October window when monarchs are in their fall migration.

Migration Compasses: Dr. Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch (Kansas University) is interested in the compasses that monarchs use during their migration. This app will gather information on both the bearing of the butterfly’s body (body vector) and a separate measurement of the direction they are moving (the vanishing bearing or flight vector). Information on Monarch Watch can be found at http://monarchwatch.org/

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Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.