South Jersey technology helps track monarch butterflies on their migration to Mexico

Adios. Vaya con Dios. Bien viaje. It has a little solar panel on it. It also has a processor so that this very, very light tracking device, electronic device, can appear on a cell phone. He's talking about the Project Monarch app. Cellular tracking technologies based in Rio Grande created the tracking device and the app. This is how they safely apply it to a Monarch butterfly, often using eyelash glue, allowing all of us to track them. For conservation efforts it's really important for us to have data on their movements and what habitats they're using so we can learn how to better protect them. So we're looking at the speed, timing and direction of migration, how it's related to wind patterns, what stopover habitats are they using. What's good for monarchs is good for a number of pollinator species and these species are extremely important to our environment. Monarch butterflies are pollinators sipping nectar to keep wildflowers healthy, providing for other pollinators that help our crops grow, which is why Project Monarch is now a keystone program at the Cape May Point Arts and Science Center. We have a team of these people who give of themselves. To make these projects happen. Thanks to the Project Monarch app, we can all take part. In Cape May Point, Tony Caputo, News 12.