Motus (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for movement) is a network of
radio receivers for tracking signals from
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
s attached to wild animals. Motus uses radio
telemetry
Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', "remote", an ...
for real-time tracking. It was launched by
Birds Canada
Birds Canada (formerly Bird Studies Canada) is Canada's national bird conservation organization. Birds Canada began as the ''Long Point Bird Observatory'' in 1960, changing its name in 1998 to reflect the growing national scope of its research p ...
in 2014 in the US and Canada.
By 2022, more than 1,500 receiver stations have been installed in 34 countries, most receivers are concentrated in the United States and Canada, where the network began. Motus network has spread rapidly because it provides important key data useful to researchers and conservationists, both nationally and internationally.
The Motus transmitter's great advantage is that it has such a small size and weight, they can weigh ~0.2 grams to ~2.6 grams,
and can therefore be attached to all animals, even small animals such as insects, for example a
bee or a
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...
.
Once a researcher or organization receives state and federal permits, they only need to acquire the appropriate transmitters and attach them to their study objects, current transmitters' range (depending on size) is up to 12 miles (20 kilometers).
The long-used
Geolocators and
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
loggers are light and small but only store the desired data, they cannot
wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
ly transmit the data, this means that researchers must recapture the transmitter-equipped object to read the stored information, recapturing a wild animal can take a long time, and many times it does not succeed.
Depending on the animal to be tracked, the transmitter is attached in a suitable way, either with a thread or an
adhesive, after a certain time the glue and thread dissolve and the transmitter falls off, having in the meantime transmitted all the data to the receivers it passed.
[{{cite web, title=Motus website., url=https://motus.org/]
References
External links
Schematic view of the motus system.Picture of a swallow fitted with a motus transmitter.
Radio technology