Going, Going, Gone: Is Animal Migration Disappearing

By D. Wilcove, Martin Wikelski. PLoS Biology, 2008

701 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Many of the world's migratory animals are in decline. This essay explores the unique scientific and political challenges of protecting migratory species while they are still common.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1a59d22b778bf817bee3a6cf9d34735784c5b10c

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecological Modeling

1. Stoyan Nikolov
2. J. Renno
3. Eduardo Rendón-Salinas
4. J. Newton
5. J. Berger
6. J. Cromsigt
7. A. Bounas
8. Stephen P. Ellner

In Ecology

1. J. Newton
2. George Wittemyer
3. S. Bearhop
4. J. Donázar
5. D. Margaritoulis
6. Judith A. Zbinden
7. G. Blanco
8. Bronwen Gill

Citations in the corpus

• Migratory dichotomy and associated phenotypic variation in marine turtles revealed by satellite tracking and stable isotope analysis (2011, background): “…how processes in dis- tinct habitats influence each other through so-called carry-over effects (Marra et al. 1998, Bearhop et al. 2005, Norris 2005) is crucial in grasping the ecology, demography, life history and conservation needs of populations (Webster et al. 2002, Wilcove & Wikelski 2008).”
• Mainstreaming Fish Spawning Aggregations into Fishery Management Calls for a Precautionary Approach (2016, background): “Wilcove and Wikelski (2008) have stated, “If migration is seen as a phenomenon of abundance, then its protection will require decisionmakers to adopt a much more pro-active approach to conservation—in effect, to protect species while they are still abundant”—much the same can be said for…”
• Characterizing properties and drivers of long distance movements by elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the Gourma, Mali (2013, background): “is a conservation priority (Wilcove and Wilkelski, 2008).”
• Trans-Amazonian natal homing in giant catfish (2016, background): “The utmost importance of migratory animals in 84 ecosystem functioning and resilience has been stressed in recent studies, emphasizing their 85 major roles in coupling resident communities and shaping food web dynamics along their 86 migration routes (Wilcove & Wikelski 2008; Bauer & Hoye 2014).”
• Linking the continental migratory cycle of the monarch butterfly to understand its population decline (2016, background): “Cross-continent animal migrations are some of the most spectacular ecological phenomena and are severely threatened (Wilcove and Wikelski 2008).”
• There and back again: migration in freshwater fishes (2014, background): “The mass migration between the ocean and freshwater biomes has decreased considerably as a result of anthropogenic influences (Wilcove and Wikelski 2008), resulting in that only about 6%–7% of the historical nutrient subsidies are now provided by the ocean through this migratory route (Gresh et al.…”
• High juvenile mortality during migration in a declining population of a long-distance migratory raptor (2015, background): “Identifying migration routes, stopover areas and wintering areas for migratory species that are declining is therefore necessary for designing effective conservation strategies that can address threats operating outside breeding areas (Wilcove & Wikelski 2008).”
• Continental-scale decreases in shorebird populations in Australia (2016, background): “Despite these difficulties, it is crucial that conservation actions are spatially targeted, particularly in the case ofmigratory species, which are decreasing more rapidly than non-migratory species (Sanderson et al. 2006; Wilcove and Wikelski 2008).”
• Dynamics and trends of overwintering colonies of the monarch butterfly in Mexico (2014, background): “As many of the most spectacular migrations around the world have either disappeared due to human activities or are in steep decline, protecting the abundance of migrants is the key to protecting the ecological importance of migration (Wilcove and Wikelski, 2008).”
• Apex scavenger movements call for transboundary conservation policies (2014, background): “However, the conservation of wide-ranging species that move between countries or even between continents poses challenges that exceed these common approaches (Wilcove and Wikelski, 2008; Block et al., 2011).”
• Global decline in aggregated migrations of large terrestrial mammals (2009, background): “Conservationists worry about the persistence of migrations (Wilcove & Wikelski 2008).”