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Multispectral and LiDAR Drones Deployed to Protect the Monarch Butterfly

The monarch butterfly’s winter habitat is under threat and drones are helping conservationists collect data to determine the cause

The monarch butterfly’s winter habitat is under threat and drones are helping conservationists collect data to determine the cause

The Monarch butterfly’s annual migration is one of the world’s most fascinating natural phenomena, and is one of the longest and largest in the insect world, spanning more than 4,000 km. The migration is a symbol of international cooperation among Canada, the United States, and Mexico, who work together to preserve the monarchs’ route from southern Canada’s Great Lakes Zone to central Mexico’s Michoacán and State of Mexico, passing through the central-western plains of the United States. However, this migration is at risk of extinction due to environmental changes, habitat destruction, and deforestation that jeopardize the monarch’s breeding grounds. For this reason, the Neovolvanic Axis Conservation Fund (FOCEN) an organization dedicated to preserve the habitats and forests where the monarchs hibernate, is searching for every means possible to protect and support this phenomenon. In a partnership with Cielito Drone and DJI Enterprise, they have turned to drones to collect vital forestry data in an effort to preserve these critical habitats.
Vital ecosystem supporters

Vital ecosystem supporters

Throughout their lives, monarch butterflies play a crucial role within the ecosystem. As herbivores, they feed on milkweed plants during the initial stage of their life, and as important pollinators, they feed on flower nectar during their adult stage. During their migration, they promote the genetic diversity of flowering plants and contribute to human food security throughout North America by transporting pollen attached to their bodies. Milkweed plants are essential to monarch butterflies, as they serve as the site for laying their eggs during the breeding season. In total, each female lays up to 400 eggs, which hatch after eight days into caterpillars with distinctive black, white, and yellow stripes. The caterpillars consume milkweed leaves and undergo metamorphosis, emerging as adult butterflies after two weeks.

Monarch butterflies are essential pollinators in the various ecosystems and food crops they encounter on their migratory route throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
The Oyamel fir and the Monarch’s endagered status

The Oyamel fir and the Monarch’s endagered status

The monarch butterfly is currently categorized as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the largest source of information on the risk status of global biodiversity. This is due to a significant population decline of up to 72% in the last decade. In addition to direct anthropogenic activities, climate change has caused a decrease in rainfall and an increase in temperature, weakening forest species and making them more susceptible to pests and diseases such as bark stripping insects. In particular, the Oyamel fir, the Monarch’s preferred tree for their winter hibernation, is under threat from a mysterious phenomenon that causes the tree to turn white, lose its foliage, and die. If these trees continue to disappear, and actions aren’t taken to protect this vital habitat, the monarch butterfly migration phenomenon may be lost forever.

Conservation drones

When the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the monarch butterfly phenomenon endangered, DJI Enterprise, together with Cielito Drone and authorities of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, deployed a research project to determine the causes and level of damage to the ecosystem that houses the monarch butterflies in Mexico. Drones offer many advantages over conventional forest inventory methods. Thanks to technological advancements, drones are becoming increasingly accessible and easy to control, allowing people who are not experts to safely and accurately execute flight missions regardless of the complexity of their study sites. By incorporating drones into forest monitoring activities, it will be possible to cover a larger area, obtain higher-resolution images, and detect changes in tree health that are difficult to see with the naked eye.
The power of multispectral

The power of multispectral

With multispectral monitoring tools and sensor technology such as LiDAR and photogrammetric cameras, it is possible to efficiently, quickly, and safely analyze ecosystems. Cielito Drone utilized DJI Enterprise equipment, specifically the Mavic 3 Multispectral and the Matrice 300 RTK with the LiDAR L1 sensor, to conduct flights within the core zone of the reserve. The Mavic 3 Multispectral has 45 megapixel multispectral bands, including green, red, red edge, and near-infrared, which allowed the team to identify areas with signs of forest decline early by calculating spectral indices used in vegetation monitoring. This data was crucial in detecting devitalized trees, which required emergency sanitation actions.
Multispectral and LiDAR Drones Deployed to Protect the Monarch Butterfly

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