Scientists Discover Ancient Zebra Migration Route
Conservationists have observed a 300 mile zebra migration in the grasslands and floodplains of Southern Africa, which is the longest known trek of any land mammal.
The discovery offers an astonishing glimpse of how wildlife is able to endure despite declining populations.
“We’re living in an age where the great migrations are declining. Songbirds in the United States are not migrating like they used to. Large mammals in southern Africa are declining. It’s fascinating to discover this one migration that nobody’s known about until now, and especially in such a well-known, well-studied animal.” said Robin Naidoo, a researcher for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the lead author of the new study.
For the purposes of the study which was published last month, Dr. Naidoo and his team collared eight female Burchell zebras for two years with GPS tracking devices. The eight sample zebras were part of a population of thousands of zebras that have travelled back and forth between Botswana and Namibia over a number of months. The zebras travelled for 300 miles and traced a migratory route that was marked by food supply, water, wet and dry season, which the authors claim could well be an ancient route.
What the researchers found most surprising for the researchers were that the zebras travelled along a straight line point to point, and the route is longer than any of the routes travelled by previous record holders, the mammals of the Serengeti.
Currently the most serious threats to migrating wildlife is the construction of guarded borders between different countries as well as highways and railroad tracks that stop animals from moving and end up changing their environments. According to a study published in 2011, there was a 15000 year old zebra migration in Botswana that simply vanished following the construction of fences back in 1968. The migration reappeared again when the fences were removed in 2004.
The new study which was a collaboration suggests that in spite of human intervention, some migratory traditions can persevere.
