Motus Wildlife

Tracking System

As part of its commitment to understanding bird movement and migration patterns, Westcave participates in the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. Motus is a collaborative research network that uses coordinated automated radio telemetry to track the movements of small flying animals. Banded animals flying over Westcave are detected by the receiving stations and their data is collected and uploaded to the Motus system. By contributing to this international system, Westcave helps provide critical data to better understand the timing, routes, and behaviors of migratory species.

What is Motus?

A bird with a black head, orange breast, grey back, perched on a branch with a blurred green and white background.
Map illustrating a collaborative wildlife research network tracking bird and bat movements in North America and Europe, with dotted lines indicating migration paths, and images of various bird and bat species, along with data collection stations and tags.

How Does Motus Work?

See it in Action: Follow the American Robin

Explore how American Robins move through the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. Each detection contributes another piece to the story of their seasonal movements.

Learn more about MOTUS here.