The world’s first ungulate migration atlas will be developed by an international team of scientists and ecologists. The Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Białowieża is joining the initiative. The project was described in the last issue of “Science”.
The migration map will collect the routes of ungulates to protect their populations against current and future threats, including those caused by human impact on the environment.
On the one hand, animal movements are often restricted by roads, railways and canals. On the other hand, the migration of ungulates is a basic ecological process. In addition, it maintains biodiversity and large populations of predators and scavengers for which ungulates are the food base.
The international consortium that will lead the project is working with the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). This agreement concerns the protection of wild animals that travel across national borders. The migration atlas will be based on scientific data collected by researchers from various continents for a long time.
