All About Radio Detections with Terra (Motus)
Terra not only detects birds by sound, but it can also detect certain radio-tagged birds and animals that come within range. The Terra Station ships with internal antennas for this purpose. One works on the 434MHz frequency, and the other works on the 2.4GHz frequency (Bluetooth). Their range is determined by where the Terra Station is placed - unobstructed range is about 0.5km and 150m respectively. External antennas can significantly improve this range - you can find our accessory antennas at https://store.terralistens.com/collections/antennas
What is Motus?
The Motus Wildlife Tracking System is a collection of sensor devices that detect radio tags on animals. It is hosted by Birds Canada, a non-profit organization, who's mission is to drive action to increase the understanding, appreciation, and conservation of birds in Canada. Motus.org is a supporting organization for researcher's study of animals through wildlife telemetry (radio tags). They collect data from research projects around the world and centralize it for study.
What are Motus tags?
Motus tags are any radio tags that are picked up and collected by Motus. That includes many types of tags of different sizes and types, but all of them will transmit to radio stations around the world. In the North America there are more than 2000 sensor stations, which are purpose-built receivers that pick up Motus tags. In addition, every Terra station also picks up tags with either 434MHz or 2.4GHz frequencies (the most common in North America). There are other Motus frequencies, specifically 166.38 MHz (in North America) and 150.1 MHz / 151.5 MHz (in Europe), which are manufactured by Lotek.
There are two manufacturers of Motus tags: Cellular Tracking Technologies and Lotek. Terra only picks up tags manufactured by CTT, and does not pick up Lotek tags. Terra is open to adding Lotek capability to it's Terra Stations, but Lotek has been unwilling to partner with us thus far. In addition, Lotek tags are lower frequency and require larger antennas to detect, and they encounter other specific technical limitations from operating at low frequencies.
In North America, the majority of tags are made by CTT, at the 434/2.4 frequencies. In Europe, more tags are Lotek, and so detection is less likely in Europe. Over time we have seen this shifting, and more CTT tags are showing up in Europe. In addition, the more Terras we place the more coverage there is for CTT tags, and that appeals to researchers and encourages them to use tags that Terra Stations can detect.
How is Terra connected to Motus?
Terra is not officially connected to Motus. Our manufacturing partner is CTT, however, and they have extensive collaboration with Motus. We are working on creating an official agreement to share our data with Motus, with the intent of vastly expanding the number of radio detection stations there are in the US and around the world.
How do I know if my antennas are working?
There's no way to test antennas in the field without an actual Motus tag, which are several hundred dollars apiece. We do, however, test the antennas before shipping, and since antennas are fairly simply mechanisms it's very unlikely they would fail under normal conditions. The only issue that might arise is if an antenna is connected to the Terra but the settings in the app aren't changed to "use external antenna". In that case, the device would still be using its internal antennas. Otherwise, if the antenna is seated and attached correctly, it will work.
Why aren't I getting regular detections?
Right now, individual stations will get detections infrequently. It would not be unusual to get fewer than a detection every few months. This is highly affected by where your Terra Station is in the world, and what time of year it is. It's also affected by the number of researchers doing Motus-compatible projects. Part of our goal in creating Terra is to expand the number of sensors around the world so more researchers will create Motus projects. In other words, the more Terras out there the more likely it is that there will be more tags to detect!
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