Feature:
2,000 zebras make surprise African
crossing
“JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA-
At a time when mankind’s encroachment on habitats is increasingly leading
species to extinction, scientists have discovered a mass migration of animals
in Africa that reaches farther than any other
documented on the continent.
The journey made by about 2,000
zebras who traveled between Namibia
& Botswana…was
discovered by wildlife experts only after some of the zebras were collared with
tracking devices.
The new-found migration is a rare
bright spot at a time when mass movements of wildlife are disappearing because
of fencing, land occupation, & other human pressures…
The previously unheralded trek
occurs within the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area
which…encompasses national parks in Namibia,
Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia,
& Angola.
‘It
goes to show us that nature still has some surprises,’ said Robin Naidoo,
senior conservation scientists at the Washington Wildlife Fund…
The zebra odyssey encompasses a
round trip journey of 500 km, starting in floodplains near the Namibia-Botswana
border at the beginning of the wet season. It follows a route across the Chobe River
& ends at the seasonally full water holes & nutritional grass of Nxai Pan National Park
in Botswana…
‘This is the longest known land
migration in Africa, in terms of distance
between end points,’ Naidoo said…
Much remains to be learned about the
Namibia-Botswana migration. The World Wildlife Fund said long-term research is
needed to confirm if the migration is annual & fixed & ‘whether this is
genetically coded or passed behaviorally from mothers to offspring.’”
Christopher
Torchia
THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Montreal Gazette
May 31/2014
Cute Critter Pic
Weekly Chuckle
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