1.3 million wildebeest

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1.3 million wildebeest
350,000 Thompsons gazelles
200,000 plains zebra
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Mammal migration Serengenti
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Why do they migrate?

• Leave acacia woodlands to

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Dangers Serengeti migration

• Predation
• Land and water
• Rinderpest
• Human population growth
• Land conversion
• Poaching esp. resident animals

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Migration problems in South Africa

• Springbok
• Irruptive migrant
• Numbers dramatically reduced
• Fences, disease, competition in grazing, hunting,
  forage with certain nutrients
• Not close to endangerment

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Marine migrations
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Adaptations for Marine Existence

• Fusiform body shape
• Fat/blubber
• Active underwater for long periods
• Flippers, fins, wings for underwater movement
• Eye protection

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Marine Wildlife Habitat

• Zones relative to shore and continental shelf
• Inshore (I)
• Offshore (O)
• Pelagic (P)

oceanic waters neritic waters
shore
I
O
P
Continental shelf
Continental land mass
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Marine Mammal Natural History

• Many populations migratory
• Many need to breed on safe islands
• Males larger than females
• Polygynous
• Males territorial
• Diet mainly fish

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Major Orders of Marine Mammals

• Pinnipeds
• Carnivores
• Cetaceans

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Major Orders of Marine Mammals

• Order Sirenia

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Whales

• Feed in productive high latitudes, migrate when
  ice forms to lower latitudes
• Same spp often have a N and S population
• Food migration
• Large reductions in numbers

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Right Whales

• right for harvest
• Harvest banned in 1937
• Why no rebound?
• Urban whale

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Pacific Gray Whales

• Longest mammal migration 10,000-12,000 miles /
  yr
• Migrate to feed
• Baja lagoons
• migration

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Sea turtles
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Potential Issues for Migrants

• Habitat loss
• land conversion
• food resources
• Obstructions
• towers, fences, fishing gear, lights
• Harvest
• Transboundary
• Climate change

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Conservation Strategies

• International cooperation (Partners in Flight)
• Incentives to protect migratory wildlife and
  habitat
• Public education consumer choices