Zebras stampede at a watering hole in northern Namibia. Thousands of zebras were monitored during a 300-mile round-trip journey, a newly discovered trek that wildlife experts say reaches farther than any other known land migration in Africa. The migration is a rare bright spot at a time when mass movements of wildlife are disappearing because of fencing, land occupation and other human pressures. Photo: AP Photo/HO-World Wildlife Fund International - Martin Harvey/MCT
JOHANNESBURG - Scientists are excited about the discovery of a mass migration of zebras in Africa. This journey of 2,000 zebras reaches farther than any other documented on the continent. The discovery comes at a time when mankind's movement into natural environments is increasingly causing the extinction of animals.

###### Their journey was discovered by wildlife experts only after they attached tracking devices to some of the zebras.

The newfound migration is a rare bright spot at a time when mass movements of wildlife are disappearing. Fencing, land occupation and other human pressures have all limited animal migrations. ###### Species of plants and animals are disappearing at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene.

Taking The Scenic Road

The previously unnoticed trek occurs within the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. The area is the size of Sweden and contains national parks at a spot where five southern African countries meet.

###### His organization led the two-year study on the migration. He said the migration was not detected earlier mainly because it was impossible to know where the animals were going without GPS tracking technology. The technology has become more available and affordable in the last 20 years.

###### They move in search of fresh grass and water. The zebras start in floodplains near the Namibia-Botswana border at the beginning of the African wet season. The animals follow a route across the Chobe River and end at the full waterholes and nutritional grass of Nxai Pan National Park in Botswana. ######

Local residents and conservationists knew the zebras left the Chobe River floodplains and returned months later in the dry season. Until recently, they didn't know where the animals went.

A Remarkable Wildlife Discovery

Researchers discovered the migration by putting satellite tracking collars on eight zebras. ###### The findings were published recently in the conservation magazine Oryx.

"This is the longest known land migration in Africa, in terms of distance between endpoints," Naidoo said.

Researchers had to get the information in a "military-style operation." They fired tranquilizer darts at the zebras from a helicopter, landed and attached GPS collars, Naidoo said.

###### He described the migration as a special discovery when such mass movements are disappearing.

"We are just scratching the surface in terms of understanding which animals migrate, where they go, and how they do it," Wilcove wrote in an email.

Protecting The Animals In Their Travels

Wildebeest travel in their own migration on the Serengeti in East Africa. ###### But they wander as they migrate.

The southern African zebras move largely in a straight line. The distance between their start and finish appears to be an average of 6 to 12 miles farther than the wildebeest travel, according to Naidoo.

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Sinclair wrote in an email that people whose land is traversed by the long migration route may benefit from protecting it "with some innovative thinking." Linking it to tourism could help save it. It could be profitable as well.

In 2004, a fence that had blocked a zebra migration route since the late 1960s was removed in another part of Botswana. ######

Wild, Open Spaces Are Shrinking

Much remains to be learned about the Namibia-Botswana migration. The World Wildlife Fund said long-term research is needed to know if the migration is annual and fixed. They also want to know "whether this is genetically coded or passed behaviorally from mothers to offspring."

###### The zebras could be following a pattern so ancient it has become embedded in their genes, according to the Oryx article.

Mike Chase leads a Botswana-based organization that participated in the zebra migration study. He said the trek stirs the heart.

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