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Solar Powered Wildlife Tracking Antenna

Smuggs recently assisted the Northeast Motus Collaboration (NMC) with the installation of a solar-powered wildlife tracking antenna at the warming hut on the top of Madonna Mountain. The NMC is a coordinated effort among Willistown Conservation Trust, Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art, Project Owlnet, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Maine Audubon, Connecticut Audubon, New Hampshire Audubon, Massachusetts Audubon, and Audubon Vermont (“Collaborators”) in cooperation with Motus Wildlife Tracking System and Birds Canada to install a series of receiver stations throughout New England (“New England Motus Array”).

Motus Wildlife Tracking System project is coordinated by Birds Canada, and now includes hundreds of collaborating institutions, agencies, and independent researchers.  With small Motus towers in place from Nunavut, Canada to Chile, more than 22,000 animals representing more than 200 species, including songbirds, raptors, seabirds, bats, monarch butterflies, and migratory dragonflies, have been tagged by dozens of participant researchers. See Motus by the Numbers for more information. 

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Kirtland's Warbler: Scott Weidensaul
Kirtland’s Warbler: Scott Weidensaul

Motus’ goal is to combine individual research projects into a massive, collaborative, coordinated, hemispheric network of VHF nanotag receiver stations, allowing researchers to track the movements of flying animals too small to support traditional satellite or GPS telemetry. All participants use a single shared radio frequency, shared infrastructure, a shared database, and (within reason) shared results. Movement tracks are presented on the Motus website for public education in a way that does not jeopardize the publications or research interests of individual cooperators. 

This New England Motus Array will expand the ability to track migrating animals passing through the region and share with others the information thereby collected. The primary species tracked are songbirds but can also include things like butterflies. Dan Maxon, Manager of Energy, Planning, and Permits at Smuggs, was responsible for making this happen.

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Stacy Maynard

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