The Motus Wildlife Tracking System is an international collaborative network of researchers that use automated radio telemetry to track hundreds of individuals of numerous species of birds, bats, and insects. The system enables a community of researchers, educators, organizations, and citizens to undertake impactful research and education on the ecology and conservation of migratory animals. Roger Williams Park Zoo is proud to have installed a Motus tower in November!

Click on the link below to go to the Motus Data Dashboard. Use your mouse to zoom in over Rhode Island. Each colored dot represents a Motus station. Can you find the Zoo's? Click on each dot, and then from the pop-up box, click "view summary" to see detailed information about each station Once you're comfortable exploring the data, see if you can answer the following questions. (Note-the page can sometimes take a long time to load. If it gets stuck, hit the refresh button on your browser.)

Motus Stations

1) Have any birds been detected at Roger Williams Park Zoo? If so, what was the most recent bird to be detected?

2) Look at the map. The Motus tower at Johnston Land Fill is right next to the Zoo's. What was the latest bird detected at the landfill?

3) Looking at the Johnston station, each bird to fly over is represented by a line. Which bird flew the longest distance?

 

Send the answers to the questions to natureswap@rwpzoo.org to earn your 5000 points!