This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Who knew a monarch butterfly could borrow a cellphone to check in with friendly people he met on his journey? That is essentially what happens now that new technology has reduced the weight of a radio-pulse tag to less than half a gram (0.02 ounces).
Those tags use Bluetooth technology to send information back to the researchers in the U.S. and Canada, including Jennifer Weber, Ph.D. '25, and Shawn Kurtzman from the Conservation Management Institute, allowing them to collect far more data than has ever been available about the paths and speeds of monarch butterflies as they migrate from a vast range in the continent's temperate areas to nature preserves in Mexico and Central America. International calls are welcome, as some of the butterflies tagged in Virginia are now in Mexico. Weber gave some of the monarchs names and keeps up with their perilous migratory journeys.
Sneezy, tagged here in the New River Valley in September, was detected in Mexico on Oct. 17. Addison and Sleepy, also part of the mountain cohort, checked in from Texas but now seem to be traveling outside the range of cell service. Two other recent visitors to Virginia Tech, Hahn and Sandman, are now in Alabama and South Carolina, respectively.
Orion and Walker were in Georgia, dealing with Tropical Storm Isaias, before heading west again. Thomas is the real traveler. Hill near Fredericksburg, he was last detected in Mississippi, then pinged again 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away in southern Mexico.
"We figured he would follow the Gulf Coast and make his way to the wintering grounds," Weber said. "Imagine our shock when he pinged yesterday at lunchtime all the way across the gulf. His latest ping put him a little bit east of a city named Coatzacoalcos, well south of the wintering grounds." Weber said Thomas and a few other radio-tagged monarchs were picked up by a swirling storm system and deposited on the Mexican coast.
To say monarchs are checking in with cellphones is not hyperbole. The new tags emit a pulse detectable by Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, vehicles and cellular towers, which send a signal through a background function to the researchers to create a continuous, real-time map. "It's citizen science, but crowd-powered," Weber said.
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