Big game learns to migrate and pass on knowledge to the flock

Scientists have proven for the first time that game animals learn to migrate before transmitting this knowledge to all generations.

In the newspaper ScienceResearchers at the University of Wyoming have studied bighorn sheep to provide early evidence that ungulates – or damaged animals – can learn where and when to migrate.

Biologists have long suspected that unlike many migrations of birds, fish and insects driven by genetics, ungulates learn to migrate from their mothers or other animals in the herd.

Wyoming scientists examined the results of a 60-year-old experiment on American sheep in the American West, where animals were re-established in places that had lost their population as a result of the sickness and hunting.

Emigrate

They found that the mouflons of the few persisting populations continued to migrate. Some of these animals were captured and released in landscapes where bighorn sheep were already present.

"The pattern was striking," said lead author Brett Jesmer. "Detailed GPS data revealed that less than 9% of the animals transferred migrated, but 65-100% of animals migrated to herds that had never been lost."

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The displaced animals did not migrate because they did not know their new habitats, supporting the idea that the migration requires extended periods for the animals to explore, learn the location of the feeds. nutritious and pass this information on to other members of the herd, including their offspring. .

Scientists have found that animals have had decades to learn when and where to migrate, and have noted that long-established herds of information from generations have been able to ride a wave of nutritious food through the seasons.

followed

Using tracking data from the GPS collars of 267 American mouflons and 189 moose, they found that it took nearly 40 years for the sheep flocks to fall back. America reintroduced become migrators at 80%. Moose have not generally become migratory for about 90 years in a new landscape.

"These results indicate that ungulates accumulate knowledge of their landscapes over time and that the cultural transmission of this knowledge is necessary for migration to occur and persist," said Dr. Jesmer, PhD student in ecology.

The work of scientists has important implications for the conservation of migration corridors, according to Matthew Kauffman, a researcher at the University of Geological Survey of the United States.

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"When the migration corridors are lost, we also lose all the knowledge of the animals on how to make these trips, which will probably take several decades, if not a century to learn again," said Dr. Kauffman.

"This study makes it clear that the best way to conserve migration corridors is to protect the landscapes that these corridors depend on, which will also help preserve the cultural knowledge that supports abundant herds."