GPS data maps South Sudan's vast antelope migration

Researchers tracking wildlife in South Sudan have compiled extensive movement data from more than two hundred collared antelopes, charting what field specialists call lines of life across the landscape. The findings illustrate pathways utilized by an estimated six million creatures in the largest mammalian migration anywhere in the world.

The seasonal travels involve four primary species: white-eared kob, tiang, Mongalla gazelle, and bohor reedbuck. Most of their journeys unfold well beyond the borders of Boma and Badingilo national parks, crossing territory occupied by roughly one million people alongside livestock, burgeoning settlements, thoroughfares, and mining sites.

Unlike the circular trek seen in the Serengeti, this migration follows more unpredictable trajectories across different groups. White-eared kob spend dry periods bordered by the White Nile, Sobat, and Akobo rivers, heading toward the Kenyan border when dense elephant grass emerges in wetter months. Collared tiang have demonstrated even greater endurance, with one monitored specimen logging over eleven thousand kilometers during roughly three years.

The mapping effort pinpoints crucial reproductive assembly spots and travel passages, helping wildlife managers direct intervention where protection yields maximum benefit. Officials with African Parks, which manages regional reserves jointly with local authorities, emphasize that preserving the system requires treating the entire connected territory as a single landscape rather than safeguarding isolated pockets.

Growing threats complicate conservation efforts. While local hunting historically depended on hand-thrown weapons that limited losses, an influx of firearms and expanded roadways now enables commercial hunters to harvest larger quantities of wildlife with motor vehicles. Meat supplies regularly reach regional towns and distant urban hubs, despite existing bans on hunting.

Scientists and managers maintain that lasting solutions require deep involvement from local communities through conservancies and tailored management agreements. A recent aerial count by African Parks estimated roughly five million white-eared kob and hundreds of thousands of other antelopes, indicating stable numbers for now as experts prepare landscape-level protections.