South Sudan's 6M antelope make up world’s largest land mammal migration

[John Ashworth]

South Sudan says its 6M antelope make up world’s largest land mammal
migration, but poaching on rise

BY SAM MEDNICK
June 25, 2024

BADINGILO and BOMA NATIONAL PARKS, South Sudan (AP) — Seen from the
air, they ripple across the landscape — a river of antelope racing
across the vast grasslands of South Sudan in what conservationists say
is the world’s largest land mammal migration.

The country’s first comprehensive aerial wildlife survey, released
Tuesday, found about 6 million antelope. The survey over a two-week
period last year in two national parks and nearby areas relied on
spotters in airplanes, nearly 60,000 photos and tracking more than a
hundred collared animals over about 46,000 square miles (120,000
square kilometers).

The estimate from the nonprofit African Parks, which conducted the
work along with the government, far surpasses other large migratory
herds such as the estimated 1.36 million wildebeests surveyed last
year in the Serengeti straddling Tanzania and Kenya. But they warned
that the animals face a rising threat from commercial poaching in a
nation rife with weapons and without strong law enforcement.

“Saving the last great migration of wildlife on the planet is an
incredibly important thing,” said Mike Fay, a conservation scientist
who led the survey. “There’s so much evidence that the world’s
ecosystems are collapsing, the world resources are being severely
degraded and it’s causing gigantic disruption on the planet.”

The east African nation is still emerging from five years of fighting
that erupted in 2013 and killed nearly 400,000 people. Elections
scheduled for last year were postponed to this December, but few
preparations are in place for those. Violence continues in some areas,
with some 2 million people displaced and 9 million — 75% of the
population — reliant on humanitarian aid, according to the United
Nations.

The migration is already being touted as a point of national pride by
a country trying to move beyond its conflict-riddled past. Billboards
of the migration recently went up in the capital of Juba, and the
government has aspirations that the animals may someday be a magnet
for tourists.

South Sudan has six national parks and a dozen game reserves covering
more than 13% of the terrain. The migration stretches from east of the
Nile in Badingilo and Boma parks into neighboring Ethiopia — an area
roughly the size of the U.S. state of Georgia. It includes four main
antelope, the white-eared kob — of which there are some 5 million —
the tiang, the Mongalla gazelle and bohor reedbuck.

The survey said some animals have increased since a more limited one
in 2010. But it described a “catastrophic” decline of most
non-migratory species in the last 40 years, such as the hippo,
elephant and warthog. Associated Press journalists flying over the
stunning migration of thousands of antelope last week saw few giraffes
and no elephants, lions or cheetahs.

Trying to protect the animals over such a vast terrain is challenging.

In recent years, new roads have increased people’s access to markets,
contributing to poaching. Years of flooding have meant crop failures
that have left some people with little choice but to hunt for food.
Some 30,000 animals were being killed each month between March and May
this year, African Parks estimated.

The government hasn’t made a priority of protecting wildlife. Less
than 1% of its budget is allocated to the wildlife ministry, which
said it has few cars to move rangers around to protect animals. Those
rangers say they haven’t been paid a salary since October and are
outgunned by poachers.

South Sudan President H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit said the country is
committed to turning its wealth of wildlife into sustainable tourism.
He called on the Ministry of Wildlife to prioritize training and
equipping rangers to fight poaching.

Matthew Kauffman, an associate professor of zoology at the University
of Wyoming who specializes in research into migration and ecosystems,
said the work fits a growing global effort “to map these migrations.”
One benefit is to be smarter when landscapes are developed to make way
for these seasonal movements, he said.

Villagers near the parks told AP they mostly hunted to feed their
families or to barter for goods.

A newly paved road between Juba and Bor — the epicenter of the illegal
commercial bushmeat trade — has made it easier for trucks to carry
large quantities of animals. Bor sits along the Nile, about 27 miles
(45 kilometers) from Badingilo Park. In the dry season, animals coming
closer to the town to drink are vulnerable to killing.

Officials at the wildlife ministry in Bor told AP the killing of
animals had doubled in the last two years.

Even when those involved in the industry are caught, the consequences
can be minor. A few years ago, when wildlife rangers came to arrest
Lina Garang for selling animals, she said they let her go, instead
telling her to conduct business more discreetly. Garang, 38, said her
competition has only grown, with 15 new shops opening along her strip
to buy and sell animals.

Part of the challenge is that there is no national land management
plan, so roads and infrastructure are built without initial
discussions about where best placed. The government’s also allocated
an oil concession to a South African company in the middle of
Badingilo that spans nearly 90% of the park.

African Parks is trying to square modernizing the country with
preserving the wildlife. The organization has been criticized in the
past for not engaging enough with communities and taking an overly
militarized approach in some of the nearly two dozen areas it manages
in Africa.

The group says its strategy in South Sudan is focused on community
relations and aligning the benefits of wildlife and economic
development. One plan is to create land conservancies that local
communities would manage, with input from national authorities.

African Parks has set up small hubs in several remote villages and is
spreading messages of sustainable practices, such as not killing
female or baby animals.

Peter Alberto, undersecretary for the ministry of wildlife,
conservation and tourism, said the government hopes the migration can
become a point of pride, and reshape how the world thinks of South
Sudan.

As for tourism, that may take a while. There aren’t hotels or roads to
host people near the parks, and the only option is high-end trips for
what one tour company official called a “high-risk” audience. There’s
fighting between tribes and attacks by gunmen in the area, and pilots
told AP they’ve been shot at while flying.

Will Jones, chief exploration officer for Journeys by Design, a
UK-based tour company, charges roughly $150,000 per person for a
weeklong tour in South Sudan. He said there isn’t strong demand.

Locals trying to protect the wildlife say it’s hard to shift people’s mentality.

In the remote village of Otallo on the border with Ethiopia, young men
have started buying motorbikes. What had been an all-day trip on foot
to cross the border to sell animals now takes just five hours,
allowing them to double the number of animals they take and make
multiple trips.

One of them, Charo Ochogi, said he’d rather be doing something else
but there are few options, and he’s not worried about the animals
disappearing.

“The kob isn’t going to finish. They’ll reproduce,” he said.

https://apnews.com/article/south-sudan-migration-large-mammal-migration-8d63db0454cdb386fcfad707efd46f7f

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