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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3485-3744
Date of Graduation
5-15-2026
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Department of Biology
First Advisor
Leone M. Brown
Abstract
Monarch butterfly populations have declined substantially in recent decades despite conservation efforts. New advances in radio telemetry tracking have resulted in tags that may be small enough for use on monarchs. Tracking individual butterflies would help answer questions about monarch movement and habitat use, aiding in monarch habitat conservation. Before tagging, it is critical to test the impact of tag adhesives and tag weight on monarch movement, behavior, and survival, and tag retention. We tested the effect of four adhesives on tag retention and survival of greenhouse-reared monarchs. Krazy Glue and Vetbond significantly decreased monarch lifespan while eyelash glue and Torbot did not differ from the control. There was no difference in tag retention rates, although we were unable to adhere tags with Vetbond. To determine the impact of tag weight on butterfly movement and behavior, we compared flight paths of untagged butterflies to those tagged with a 0.06-g Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT) BlūMorpho or a 0.13-g Lotek NanoPin tag. We tested breeding, migratory, and overwintering monarchs, as physiological and behavioral differences between the annual stages could impact the tagging response. The heavier Lotek tags significantly lowered move lengths and increased the probability of resting. Breeding and overwintering monarchs with the lighter CTT tags showed no difference in movement compared to untagged monarchs. While there were marginally negative effects of CTT tags on migratory monarchs, a separate study confirmed that migrants carrying CTT tags successfully made it to Mexico (Project Monarch unpubl. data; Fagin, 2025), suggesting migratory monarchs can still be tracked with these tags. The results of our first two tests confirm the critical need to test for tag impacts prior to use. Finally, in a case study applying radio telemetry techniques to study breeding monarch behavior and habitat use throughout the day, we tagged 48 monarch butterflies and located them several times each day. Behavior was significantly impacted by sex, time of day, and temperature, while tree usage significantly depended on temperature, time of day, and behavior. These results indicate the importance of augmenting behavioral observations collected over shorter time periods with those collected throughout the day.
