Twenty “first generation” Oklahoma monarchs were tagged with small solar-powered transmitters at the Oklahoma City Zoo to track their northbound migration.
These butterflies were raised from eggs laid in Edmond by a female monarch that had overwintered in Mexico and migrated to the state earlier this spring. They join dozens of other monarchs tracked by conservation groups, including 20 individuals cooperatively tagged by the Dallas and Oklahoma City zoos.
"The amount of information these tags are providing is amazing," said Emily Geest, OKC Zoo conservation scientist. "We can check in on each butterfly and follow their journey across the Red River and further north."
The transmitter weighs about 10% of the butterfly’s weight and is comparable to a grain of rice. It sends a signal every time it connects to a device with Bluetooth and location services enabled. The free Project Monarch Science app shows the location of tagged butterflies and allows users to scan for active tags in their vicinity. One Oklahoma butterfly nicknamed "Verbena" has already traveled more than 200 miles from the zoo and was last detected near Emporia, Kansas.