The world’s last great animal migrations have recently gotten some attention in several scientific papers and resulting media. Of course the Boreal is one of these last places on earth where there is still:

-unimpeded mass migrations of mammals from the tundra into the northern Boreal (specifically caribou and sometimes apparently timber wolves that follow the herds);

-migrations of anadromous fish like Atlantic Salmon and sea run trout from the rivers to the sea and back and possibly from the large lakes into shoaling areas and rivers;

-the vast migration of billions of birds that breed in the Boreal and spill south to winter throughout the hemisphere (click here to see the recent tv piece I did on this).

 
Herd of migratory caribou in Labrador
Credit: Innu Nation

The two papers below are worth reading and are open-access, so they are freely downloadable at the links below:

Global decline in aggregated migrations of large terrestrial mammals:
http://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2009/7/n007p055.pdf

Quote from above paper:

“The principal conclusion drawn from this global audit is that mass migrations of mammals are under major threat throughout the world.”

Going, Going, Gone: Is Animal Migration Disappearing by David Wilcove and Martin Wikelski:
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060188

Here’s an interesting quote from the above paper:

“Each spring, more than 30,000 tons of migratory songbirds migrate from their wintering grounds in Latin America and the Caribbean to their breeding grouns in the United States and Canada.”

And here are some media stories and blog entries:

MSNBC: Large Mammal Migrations are Disappearing
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31170724/

National Public Radio: As Fences Cut Off Migration, Hoofed Species Decline
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105165068

Our own International Boreal Conservation Science Panelist Stuart Pimm’s Nat Geo Blog
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2009/05/animal-migrations-threatened.html

A 2004 NY Times article: For Wildlife, Migration is Endangered
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/science/for-wildlife-migration-is-endangered-too.html?pagewanted=1

Some good books on the subject include:

Caribou and the North: A Shared Future by Monte Hummel and Justina Ray

No Way Home by David Wilcove

Here’s a map of the three major flyways that birds use to find their wintering grounds south of the Boreal:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 11:37 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Boreal Science, Migration, Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.