Organizers: Lucas DeGroote, Lisa Kiziuk, Stuart Mackenzie, and Matthew Webb
The Motus Wildlife Tracking System has grown explosively over the past five years, expanding from a largely regional Northeast telemetry network to one with an international scope; including more than 850 receiver stations on five continents, involving more than 600 research partners and collaborators. As Motus expands to its global potential, strategic planning is urgently needed at multiple levels to ensure sustainability of both funding and infrastructure maintenance, to provide more seamless data integration and processing as data upload rates increase dramatically, and to create systems to adopt and adapt to changing technology. This round table discussion will connect current and future Motus users. We will outline our project to install 100 Motus receiving stations across the northeastern United States and offer “lessons learned” to collaborators planning and building networks in other regions in North America. We invite those building similar networks to contribute to a continental level strategic plan. We will also discuss sustainable funding; infrastructure maintenance and upgrades; and emerging data analytics, tools and technologies. By informing and connecting Motus users we hope to share our expertise to guide the sustainable growth of Motus for the foreseeable future.