Chipping Migrating Monarchs

Millions of monarch butterflies migrate each fall to a specific cluster of mountain peaks in central Mexico. How exactly they navigate to their winter home, and the way they choose their path, is a topic of great interest to scientists, especially as climate change redirects their chosen path.

In Hee Lee, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering, is part of a team developing a tracking system that could be attached to monarch butterflies and transmit data about their location throughout the three-month (or longer) journey south.

“Tracking animal migration is a critical ecosystem indicator,” says Lee. “Migrators travel long distances across entire continents, and it can give us unprecedented insight into their migratory paths, how the environment around them is changing, and how species interactions are impacted by changing movements and distributions.”

The chip is attached to the butterfly’s back and can simultaneously measure light intensity and temperature, wirelessly communicating that information to researchers once the butterflies reach their destination. The system will use a deep learning-based localization algorithm to reconstruct the butterfly’s migration.