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Who goes farthest of them all? The world's longest wild fauna terrestrial migrations and movements

Caribou migrating along a river, snowy mountains in the background
Caribou have the longest terrestrial migration, just there is more to the migration story.

NPS/Kyle Joly

A wolf tracks a herd of khulan in Mongolia
A grayness wolf from Mongolia has been documented as having traveled over 4,500 miles in a year.

Photo courtesy of Dejid Nandintsetseg

Caribou are ofttimes credited with the longest terrestrial migrations in the world, though without much scientific support. An international squad of scientists, including Kyle Joly (National Park Service), Elie Gurarie (University of Maryland) and Marker Hebblewhite (University of Montana), gathered GPS collar information from around the world to address the question of which large terrestrial mammal migrates the farthest. Recognizing that not all mammals migrate, they besides determined how far these mammals moved during the class of a twelvemonth. The team'due south findings accept just been published in the journal Scientific Reports. Caribou, from numerous populations, were found to take the longest existing migrations in the world, with the round-trip distances exceeding 745 miles (1,200 km). Despite exhibiting the longest migrations in the world, a few species moved more than caribou in a year. Gray wolves and khulan (Mongolian wild ass) all moved more than caribou when considering their entire annual GPS track. A greyness wolf from Mongolia captured the title of tiptop terrestrial mover, having traveled 4,503 miles (seven,247 km) in a year. To put this into perspective, it would be similar to you lot walking from Washington, DC to Los Angeles….and back…in a year.

A herd of khulan run across the Mongolian plains
The khulan (or wild ass, pictured here) and wild camel in Mongolia travel long distances, though not in an organized migration like caribou, but  the grey wolf travels fifty-fifty farther hunting them.

Photo courtesy of Petra Kaczensky

The team discovered interesting patterns among these big movers. Offset, non only can predators keep upwards with their casualty, they are often required to move much more than in the course of their search for a repast. In Mongolia, gray wolves moved more than their prey, the khulan and wild camel. In Alaska, gray wolves moved more than than caribou or moose. Second, small casualty animals from the same region tended to motion more than than larger ones. For example, wildebeest moved more than zebras in the Serengeti, caribou more than moose in Alaska, and khulan more than than wild camels in Mongolia. I possible explanation of this pattern is that large animals are capable of using lower quality nutrient sources which are more abundant, and this allows them to move less overall. Lastly, higher movement rates by herbivores were associated with lower vegetative productivity. The less food that was available, the more they moved, probable to acquire sufficient resources. The greatest movements were found in areas of very low man disturbance, which highlights the effects of habitat fragmentation and human development.

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Longest terrestrial migrations and movements around the globe

Abstruse

Long-distance terrestrial migrations are imperiled globally. We determined both round-trip migration distances (direct-line measurements between migratory end points) and total annual movement (sum of the distances between successive relocations over a year) for a suite of large mammals that had potential for long-distance movements to test which species displayed the longest of both. Nosotros found that caribou likely do exhibit the longest terrestrial migrations on the planet, but, over the course of a year, greyness wolves motion the most. Our results were consequent with the trophic-level-based hypothesis that predators would movement more than than their prey. Herbivores in depression-productivity environments moved more herbivores in more productive habitats. We also found that larger members of the same guild moved less than smaller members, supporting the "gastro-centric"' hypothesis. A better agreement of migration and movements of large mammals should aid in their conservation past helping delineate conservation expanse boundaries and determine priority corridors for protection to preserve connectivity. The magnitude of the migrations and movements we documented should likewise provide guidance on the scale of conservation efforts required and assist conservation planning across bureau and even national boundaries.

Joly, K. .... and others. 2019. Longest terrestrial migrations and movements around the world. Scientific Reports 10.1038/s41598-019-51884-5

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Last updated: November 12, 2019