The New York Times has created a visualization charting the migration routes of six tagged monarch butterflies as they travel from release sites across the Eastern United States and southern Canada to their colonies in central Mexico. Each butterfly carries a tag that periodically pings nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices. Every time a device picks up a signal, it sends the tag’s ID, time, and location to a tracking system, creating a chain of detection points as the butterfly moves across the continent. The visualization makes clear that migration is far from uniform, exposing the different routes, detours, and behaviors that one-to-one tracking can reveal.
Tracking Individual Butterfly Migrations
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