Mass antelope migration

A viral aerial video of antelope pouring across South Sudan showed a real wildlife event: part of the world’s largest land mammal migration. (africanparks.org) The migration runs through the Boma-Badingilo-Jonglei landscape, where African Parks and South Sudan’s government said a 2024 aerial survey found about six million antelope. The count covered white-eared kob, Mongalla gazelle, tiang and Bohor reedbuck. (africanparks.org) The video circulating online focused on tiang, a large antelope that moves with other species across the same system. A Convention on Migratory Species fact sheet says tiang spend the wet season around Badingilo and then shift north and west toward the Sudd wetlands before returning when rains come back. (cms.int) This is not a single herd moving in one line. African Parks says the animals breed in Badingilo during the wet season, then migrate north and east toward Boma, the Sudd and, for some animals, Ethiopia’s Gambella National Park. (africanparks.org) The footage drew attention because the migration was only formally quantified in June 2024, when South Sudan released results from its first comprehensive aerial wildlife survey. African Parks called that survey the first systematic assessment of wildlife, livestock and human activity in the landscape. (africanparks.org) The landscape itself is vast. UNESCO’s tentative World Heritage listing says the Boma-Badingilo migratory landscape covers about 37,500 square kilometers, with Badingilo National Park to the west and Boma National Park to the east, linked by an unprotected corridor. (whc.unesco.org) That corridor is a central conservation issue. UNESCO’s filing says the parks sit on either side of open savannah and floodplain habitat, and newer migration maps released in April 2025 were intended to help planners protect routes used across South Sudan and into Ethiopia. (whc.unesco.org) (naturenews.africa) The six-million figure also needs one caveat: it refers to the broader migration, not to tiang alone. Reporting based on the 2024 survey said the total included roughly five million white-eared kob, just under 300,000 tiang, about 350,000 Mongalla gazelle and about 160,000 Bohor reedbuck. (geographical.co.uk) The same survey that confirmed the migration also pointed to risk. African Parks said sedentary species such as elephant, buffalo, hippo and cheetah have declined sharply since studies in the 1980s, and a Convention on Migratory Species fact sheet says tiang face heavier hunting pressure from motorcycle access, bushmeat trade and planned oil development. (africanparks.org) (cms.int) So the online clip was not just a striking scene from a remote park. It was a glimpse of a migration that scientists, conservation groups and South Sudan’s government are still trying to map, count and keep intact. (africanparks.org)