On the Move

Animals across Africa are on the move. Find out about some of their record-breaking treks.

October 1, 2018

By Emma Carlson Berne

The ground rumbles. Hooves pound the dirt. Dust clouds fill the air. More than a million wildebeests are making their annual migration from Kenya to Tanzania in Africa. They must cross rushing rivers where crocodiles lurk and wide-open plains where hungry cheetahs roam. But that won’t stop them. The wildebeests are on a mission to find their next meal.

Wildebeests must migrate across Africa’s grasslands to find food and water. They’re leaving their current spot in Kenya because they’ve gobbled up most of the grasses there. Now it’s off to the southern plains of the Serengeti, a region in eastern Africa. It’s time to find some fresh grasses to nibble on.

Dr. Grant Hopcraft is a professor at the University of Glasgow in England who studies the migration. He describes the scene, saying, “You see all those wildebeests in one place. Everywhere you look, there are animals—almost shoulder to shoulder.”

Meanwhile, in southern Africa, thousands of Burchell’s zebras hoof it from Namibia to Botswana. They’re on the hunt for a grassy meal too. The zebras’ annual round-trip migration covers more than 300 miles—that’s about 150 miles each way. It’s the longest nonstop land mammal migration on the continent!

Mark Carwardine/NPL/Minden Pictures; Francesco Tomasinelli/SCIENCE SOURCE

As wildebeests and zebras trek across the terrain, a giant group of bats take to the sky. Between October and December, about 10 million straw-colored fruit bats set off from central Africa, the continent’s tropical region. It’s the largest group of migrating mammals in the world.

The bats fly to a tiny swamp forest in Zambia in search of a good meal. A feast of ripe fruit awaits them there.

Brighton Moyfa is a park guide in Kasanka National Park, Zambia. He remembers the first time he saw the bats in the swamp forest. He was amazed at the sight of “millions of fruit bats going in every direction searching for food at night, flying until dawn.”

Whether it’s wildebeests, zebras, bats, or other migrating creatures, Africa’s animals are on the move a lot. If you’re lucky, you might one day see one of these great treks.

“It’s a memory I’ll never forget!” says Moyfa.