Wonder what land animal makes the longest trek during its seasonal migrations? One creature earns its stripes as the champion, wildlife experts say -- the zebra.
As many as several thousand Burchell's zebras make journeys of 300 miles or more between Namibia and neighboring Botswana, researchers with the World Wildlife Fund reported.
They tracked the migrations by fitting GPS collars to eight adults of the species Equus guagga as herds moved between Namibia's Chobe River and Nxai Pan National Park in Botswana during their seasonal movements in search of food and water.
"The almost unerring north-south direction was unusual," says lead study author Robin Naidoo, a WWF conservation scientist.
But it was the overall distance of the trek, not its direction, that was the biggest surprise, he says.
"The distance covered by these zebra was a total shock to all of us involved in the study, as well as to people familiar with wildlife conservation in the region," he says. "Nobody knew that something of this scale, with this much ground covered, was occurring."
After spending the dry season on the flood plains of the Chobe River, the beginning of the rainy season sees the zebra's embarking on their trek south into Botswana, which takes weeks to accomplish.
The findings come amid other research suggesting the migrations of many global species are becoming increasingly threatened, mostly by human activity.
Zebra migrations that take place in some other African regions have faced serious disruptions by man-made physical barriers including fences, the researchers say.
Other migration routes cross regions where the animals face constant pressure from hunters, destruction of habitat, and the spread of villages and farms, blocking traditional migration corridors.
Safe migration corridors are crucial for the survival of many of Africa's mammals and of the natural systems necessary to support them, the WWF researchers said.
While impressed by the zebra's distance capabilities, wildlife experts say they're still puzzled by the precision with which they carry them out year after year.
"Zebra find their way hundreds of kilometers through relatively featureless, arid scrubland," says Hattie Bartlam-Brooks of Britain's University of Bristol. "Pretty amazing when you think they only make that journey twice a year. We'd rely on maps, signs, GPS -- and might still get lost!"
