nature & planetMongabay
Mapping the ‘lines of life’ of South Sudan’s vast antelope migration
Conservationists in South Sudan have mapped the movements of migratory antelopes using GPS collars fitted to 262 animals since 2023. Millions of location points were joined to create a web of lines showing where the animals travel. Four species are tracked, including the white-eared kob, tiang, Mongalla gazelle and bohor reedbuck. Together their seasonal migrations across the Great Nile Migration Landscape are estimated to total around 6 million animals, making it the largest mammal migration on the planet. Most of the routes lie outside national parks, in an area shared with roughly 1 million people, cattle, new towns, roads and mines.
The map helps conservationists identify high-use corridors where wildlife most needs protection. Because much of the migration happens outside protected areas, development such as roads and mines poses a growing threat. The data gives managers a clearer way to keep the animals moving.
background
An antelope is any of the extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae, which are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Russia. Antelopes do not form a monophyletic group, as some antelopes are more closely related to other bovid groups, such as bovines, goats, and sheep, than to other antelopes.
A stricter grouping, known as the true antelopes, includes only the genera Gazella, Nanger, Eudorcas, and Antilope. One North American mammal, the pronghorn or "pronghorn antelope", is colloquially referred to as the "American antelope", despite the fact that it belongs to a different family (Antilocapridae) than the true Old-World antelopes; pronghorn are the sole extant member of a lineage that once included many species which went extinct in the prehistoric period.
From Wikipedia: Antelope (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
Mongabay · CC BY-ND 4.0
