The Longest-Known Terrestrial Wildlife Migration is Discovered in Africa: Over 300 Miles

Scientists have discovered and documented the longest-known terrestrial migration of wildlife in Africa. They've found several thousand zebra that cover a distance of more than 300 miles on a regular basis.

Animal migrations across the globe are increasingly endangered. As wildlife habitat is increasing cut into pieces by building projects, animal groups need to either find ways around human-constructed structures, or similar halt their migrations altogether. In fact, scientists have documented zebra migrations in Africa that have been disrupted by physical barriers such as fences.

In order to track this particular migration, the scientists placed GPS collars on eight adult Plains zebra (Equus quagga). Then, they tracked two consecutive years of movement back and forth between the Chobe River in Namibia and Botswana's Nxai Pan National Park. In the end, they found that the zebra were doing a round trip of more than 300 miles.

"This unexpected discovery of endurance in an age dominated by humans, where we think we know most everything about the natural world, underscores the importance of continued science and research for conservation," said Robin Naidoo, senior conservation scientist at WWF, in a news release.

While learning that these zebra travel so far is interesting in and of itself, there are also conservation implications for this study. But understanding where the zebra travel, conservationists can pinpoint areas to save from further degradation.

"The findings of this study emphasize the importance of trans-frontier conservation areas in conservation of the greater landscape," said Pierre Du Preez, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This study has played an important role in helping determine a key wildlife corridor in KAZA."

That said, future research is still needed in order to make sure that this migration is an annual and fixed occurrence. The scientists also hope to see whether this migration is genetically coded or passed behaviorally from one generation to the next.

The findings are published in the journal Oryx.