Migrations in Danger

Every year in the Okavango Delta, 250,000 zebras set out on a quest of over 174 miles, a journey that often takes a dramatic turn. Although these zebras have been traveling the same routes for eons, in recent years they have had to tackle an impassable barrier. Since the 1970s, a network of more than 31,000 miles of fences has been erected in Botswana to contain and protect livestock.

The golden lion tamarin lives in the Atlantic Forest, a unique ecosystem in Brazil that foresting has reduced to a mere ten percent of its original area. In mating season the tamarin has no other choice but to cross the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a busy road where many semi-trucks pass. This obstacle that now stands between the tamarins and their forest could cause the loss of the tribe.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were over one million Tibetan antelopes on the high plateaus of western China. There are only 200,000 left. Furthermore, a railroad poses a new threat by traversing their last inhabitable territory. Faced with this obstacle, the animals must resort to passing through mountain prairies, making it easy for their predators to attack.