By Becca Sapienza
November 2025–Two thousand miles. That’s how far many monarch butterflies will travel to reach their overwintering grounds. This alone seems like no simple feat. But imagine carrying a solar backpack and being tracked too?
If you attended the Flight of the Monarch Event at the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR) November 18th, you may have been lucky enough to watch the delicate surgery of attaching solar transmitters to the back of some healthy monarchs. I was able to attend a morning session and it was like watching a mini teaching surgery.
First, the butterfly gets a dab of eyelash glue–yes that’s what they use!–then a tiny transmitter with a small antenna is gently placed on top. This is possible since a battery would’ve made it too heavy to fly. The butterfly is laid flat under paper and quarters for weight while the glue dries. Afterwards, I got to watch one of the butterflies, named Xerces 10, fly away towards the sun after a successful attachment. Not only that, I was then able to check my phone and see their progress!
The transmitters relay through cell phone pings and data of their location is added into the ‘Project Monarch’ app. I caught myself the next morning excitedly opening my app to see how far the tagged monarchs from that day had travelled. One was near Carrabelle and one had made it to Tallahassee. This inclusion of average cell phone users really gets the public excited about tracking and relaying data to the app and hopefully raising more awareness about healthy monarch habitat along their journey. You can download the Project Monarch app for free through your android App Store or Apple app Store on your phone.
Speaking of habitats, during the event you could also plant a native milkweed plant, a food source and hatching ground for the monarch, in the ANERR garden and take one home to plant in your yard for a monarch pitstop. Adults and kids alike seemed enthralled with the presentations; we were all learning new ways to assist this amazing species.
The event was attended by over 200 guests, and 167 monarchs were tagged.
ANERR is looking forward to another successful monarch event next year. We hope to see you there so you can experience this strong life cycle and journey of the monarch!
