| The
migration of America's great mammals is being cut off
by encroaching human habitation and energy plants and
pipelines.
The problem has prompted a US wildlife biologist to
recommend the establishment of "national migration
corridors" to protect the routes these animals
have used for at least the last 5800 years.
Virtually every large, migrating North American animal
outside of Alaska lives in the Yellowstone National
Park ecosystem. However, many of their migration routes
are now being truncated.
Joel Berger, senior scientist with the Wildlife Conservation
Society, says that 100 per cent of bison routes, 78
per cent of pronghorn antelope routes and 58 per cent
of elk migration routes have been lost. However, migration
of moose and mule deer is undisturbed.
Round trip
Yellowstone pronghorn undertake a roundtrip migration
of 430 kilometres on average. Most pass through an 800
metre-wide bottleneck in Wyoming known as Trapper's
Point - an area now being developed for oil and gas.
Bison no longer migrate from Yellowstone at all. Those
that attempt to move into Montana beyond park boundaries
are shot because ranchers fear the spread of brucellosis
to cattle.
Data on historical bison migrations is anecdotal, but
they are believed to have travelled as far as 600 kilometres
during their seasonal journeys.
"The number of oil and gas wells going in is so
phenomenal that it is altering an area that was a natural
environment and turning it into an industrial landscape,"
says the Sierra Club's Kirk Koepsel.
"If people care about spectacular processes that
once crossed vast landscapes, we've got to be creative
and do things now," he told New Scientist. "Otherwise,
no one is going to see long distance migration outside
of the Arctic."
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article by Dan Whipple
© Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
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