Monarch butterflies tracked using tiny solar powered transmitters

The monarch butterfly is very distinctive - with its striking bright orange and red wings, black veins with white spots on the edges with a 3-to-4-inch wingspan.

Now for the first time, individual monarch butterflies are being tracked across North America using tiny solar powered transmitters that connect to smartphones. Their destination is the winter sanctuaries in central Mexico.

It has got scientists excited.

Weekend spoke to Dr. Chip Taylor a professor emeritus at the University of Kansas who has spent decades studying the migration of the monarchs, and to Michael Lanzone, CEO of Cellular Tracking Technologies, the company behind the revolutionary new tag. He explained, to Weekend’s Krupa Padhy, how it works.

(Photo: A monarch butterfly rests on a tree. CREDIT: REUTERS/Raquel Cunha)