Ian Stewart
Migration is a fascinating aspect of animal biology. Each spring and fall, millions of birds, mammals and insects fly thousands of miles to get to either their breeding or wintering grounds. Migration can be challenging to follow however, as many of these animals migrate at night and travel quickly. There are several methods scientists use to track migration but a new collaborative method has recently emerged: the Motus system.
The Bucktoe Motus tower
The Motus system is an international network of automated towers which detect any animal fitted with a special small tag within a 15km range (‘Motus’ = Latin for ‘movement’). Since each tag emits a unique signal it is possible to track the movement of individual animals as they pass by one of more towers. The great majority of animals fitted with tags are birds but tags have also been placed on bats and large insects like dragonflies or even butterflies! The Motus network allows scientists to collect data on tagged animals to help them find out how variables like weather and the animal’s age, sex, and physical condition affect the timing and speed of their movements. It also aids conservation efforts by identifying key areas where animals stop to feed and rest during migration which can then be protected.
There are over 200 towers spread across the world, most of which are in North America (see the map on the Motus homepage www.motus.org). In the summer of 2017 a team of dedicated field biologists erected a line of towers all the way across Pennsylvania. The towers are so close together that their detection ranges overlap, meaning that they would pick up every tagged animal that migrates north or south anywhere in the entire state!
Distribution of Motus towers across PA and DE
Thanks to generous funding from the Starrett Foundation and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources via the Willistown Conservation Trust, a Motus tower was erected at Bucktoe Creek Preserve near Kennett Square in August 2017 as part of this line and has been recording 24/7 ever since! In the fall of 2017 it detected 7 thrushes, 3 warblers, a woodcock and a bat, all presumably heading south for the winter. In the spring of 2018 it detected a thrush and 4 shorebirds, all likely heading north to breed.
Another remarkable feature of the Motus system is that much of the data is open-access and can be viewed by anyone with the Internet. To see what animals are being detected follow these 4 simple steps.
1. Visit the homepage at www.motus.org then scroll down to see a map of the world with a yellow dot representing each tower.
2. Zoom in to find the tower you’re interested in (e.g. Bucktoe Creek) and click the dot. A box will then open telling you the name of the tower and its location plus the contact details of the organization overseeing it. The bottom row gives the number of tags detected by that tower (if there have been any) with ‘table/timeline’ in parentheses next to it.
3. Click on ‘table’ and a new page will open with several columns including the date each tag was detected plus the ID# of that tag (in blue text) and the species it was placed on.
4. Click on the ID# to reveal the date and place where the animal was tagged, and then if you want to explore further, either click on ‘table’ in the bottom row to see a list of towers at which that bird was detected, or ‘timeline’ to see what time the animal passed by the tower and how long it stayed. My own favorite is to click on ‘map’ to show the route the animal took!
Every year more Motus towers are erected throughout North America and they are also starting to spread across other continents. The number of tagged animals is also steadily increasing and every time one is detected it adds to our understanding of animal migration. Watch this space for updates from the Bucktoe tower!
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April and May showers may bring flowers but for our streams rain can also bring problems. Recent rains have resulted in our streams resembling unappetizing chocolate milk more than the clear clean water that we want to see.
