Walt Disney World is using new tech to protect monarch butterflies: Here's how it works | FOX 51 Gainesville
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Walt Disney World is using new tech to protect monarch butterflies: Here's how it works

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Published  May 12, 2025 11:41am EDT
Disney
FOX 35 Orlando
Disney uses tiny tech to save butterflies

Disney uses tiny tech to save butterflies

Disney is using tiny technology to help save butterflies. FOX 35's Stephanie Buffamonte reports.

The Brief

    • Walt Disney World is pioneering new technology to protect monarch butterflies.
    • The butterflies will wear tiny tags to help scientists track their movements to understand them better.
    • The groundbreaking technology is taking flight at EPCOT’s Flower and Garden Festival, where guests can see this in person.

Disney Conservation team members are tagging monarch butterflies with teeny, tiny tags that are about the size of a grain of rice. 

What we know:

The brand-new technology allows Disney Conservation team members to track the monarchs’ movements so they can put in different types of plants, different types of milkweeds where they lay their eggs, and figure out how do we best make a habitat that helps support populations of monarch butterflies.

Credit: Disney

How it works

The tags have a solar panel with an antenna on the butterfly’s back. The tags are weighed before they’re put on the butterfly to ensure they’re small enough and safe for the butterflies.

Credit: Disney

 The tags use the same radio frequency as a phone, and instantly, the Disney Conservation team members to track the butterfly’s movements.

Credit: Disney

Why you should care:

The flower that monarchs typically lay their eggs in is less abundant in the world, causing the monarch population to drop by as much as 90 percent over the last 20 years or so. Disney is working with the Saving Animals From Extinction, SAFE, program to recover and sustain monarch populations by fostering healthy breeding and migratory environments and providing them with safe places to be dormant for the winter.

What they're saying:

Disney Conservation Director Dr. Zak Gezon says this will help the monarch butterfly species far beyond Walt Disney World.

"We can take the data that we gather in here and then take it and tag more monarchs out in the wild and see where they move. And that data will be all the more informative to know how we can best help support monarch butterflies in the world," said Dr. Gezon.

Credit: Disney

He hopes park guests find inspiration to start a journey of their own to help.

"The amazing thing about butterflies is that everybody can have an impact. You can go home and plant a butterfly garden. It doesn't take a lot of space," said Dr. Gezon. "This is the generation that's going to save the monarch butterfly, and it gives me so much hope."

What you can do:

Every Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. through the end of May, guests at EPCOT can see Disney Conservation team members attaching the tags on the butterflies outside of Butterfly Landing.

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The Source: This story was written based on information FOX 35 collected during an interview with Disney Conservation Director Dr. Zak Gezon.

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