Project Monarch

Cellular Tracking Technologies

About this app

Project Monarch is an effort to leverage recent advances in tracking technology, that have enabled the development of the world’s smallest tracking devices, to track Monarch migration.

The tracking devices on the monarch butterflies transmit at the same frequency as Bluetooth which means that everyone with a smartphone is carrying around a receiver in their pocket! This revolutionary approach can potentially create the largest wildlife tracking receiver network in the world, but only if members of the public download and use the free Project Monarch app.

These data will allow scientists to track the movements of monarch butterflies in detail never previously imagined. We will see how monarchs utilize key stopping points along migratory routes and learn more about the speed and direction of migration, helping identify the most important sites for habitat conservation and restoration. Ultimately, this technology can help guide conservation planning and lead to increases in monarch populations.

Ratings and reviews

Make sure to verify your email. Mine was in my spam folder, so definitely check there if you don’t see it right away. Also, the app has not crashed for me at all. It’s a very basic app, but it seems straightforward and easy to use. Since it’s still winter here in New York, I haven’t found any butterflies yet, but I’m hoping to once the weather gets warmer. Adding an extra star because this is such a cool project, and I really want to support this citizen science effort.

Keeps crashing. Per others' comments, I enabled location sharing, share with other devices. The app occasionally asks for these permissions but most of the time it just crashes. For an app that has great crowd-sourcing potential and scientific data, it should be more robust. I give up.

To keep the app from crashing on launch, first goo into permissions and permit location sharing and nearby devices; then it works and it's very cool! It would be good if the app told you this instead of crashing... (Oh and yes, the verification email does tend to go to spam, so check for it there.)