It's a bird... It's a plane... It's a Motus Tower!

By: Luke Trittelwitz, WisCorps Avian Field Technician

Have you noticed the new addition on the roof of the Wise Nature Center? This tower may look like the average TV antenna, however it's really a breakthrough in scientific research happening right here at Beaver Creek! Last month, with the help of volunteers, donors, and Beaver Creek staff, two Motus towers were built so we can join the advancing research! One is on top of the Wise Nature Center, and the other at the Henke Acres. 

You may now be wondering, what is Motus? The Motus Wildlife Tracking System is an international research network that uses automated radio telemetry to track birds, bats, and insects. This can be detected by Motus stations worldwide! The towers can detect these transmitters up to 20 km away. There are currently 31 countries participating in Motus, totaling over 1,200 stations, and 30,000 tags that have been placed on more than 250 species. This data has contributed to 130 academic publications covering a wide range of disciplines such as breeding, migration behavior, and more!

Motus towers provide you:

• The widest variety of animals to be monitored over the greatest distance with relatively high geographic precision, an incredible temporal precision Centralized, and a public data portal for automated radio telemetry projects globally.
• See what’s been detected at your and other stations around the world.
• Shared local-to-hemispheric tracking infrastructure.
• Innovative, affordable, open-source hardware and software.
• Compatibility across numerous technology providers.
• A large international collaborative community.

Some of the largest barriers to effective conservation and management of migratory animals is our ability to determine the importance of various landscapes and how they are utilized throughout their annual cycle. Our landscape includes numerous geographic and anthropogenic features (urban, rural, utility, industrial) that might influence migratory animals’ use of and movement through the landscape. Gaining a better understanding of these processes will help those in the field make ecologically informed decisions with regards to wildlife management, policy, and regulation. 

Not everywhere is able to be a host site for a Motus tower. To be a good location, the most important factor is that the antennas have an unobstructed view in the direction they are facing. For this reason, the highest point on the surrounding landscape (within 5-10 km) is usually preferred. This may be a hill or other prominent feature, shoreline, a station attached to an existing building (like the Wise Nature Center), or a standalone station that exceeds the height of any nearby trees or features (like the Henke Acres). 

Motus is not only advancing our knowledge in animal and migration science, but also in:

• Open framework for development, code, and analysis sharing
• Population ecology
• Animal behavior and physiology
• Environmental impact assessment and management
• Populations, survival, and species dynamics
• Stopover, site-based, and full life-cycle knowledge
• How animals use flyways and landscapes

Soon we will begin attaching telemetry tags to birds, bats, and insects to learn more about their migration patterns and aid in conservation efforts. We are excited to join this international project because this data will revolutionize our understanding of migratory animals! Stay tuned for more information.