From monarch butterflies to wildebeests: Migrant animals increasingly threatened by habitat degradation
Migratory animal species are vital to the global environmental balance and the survival of humanity. Traveling animals pollinate plants, transport nutrients, and control pests.
However, their future is increasingly uncertain. Currently, more than a fifth of the 1,189 migratory species studied are in danger of extinction, according to the first report on the situation of these animals presented in 2024 by the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). The main threat, affecting 75%, is the degradation of their habitats due to human activities such as agriculture and livestock farming, urban expansion, or mass tourism. The second major threat is their extermination : 70% die due to hunting or fishing. This, combined with climate instability , results in most migratory animal populations collapsing, and the few individuals that survive are forced to adapt to increasingly hostile environments.
In the United Arab Emirates, the rapid growth of cities since the oil boom of the 1970s is threatening the mangroves that line the coast. These ecosystems between land and water are vital for many species that cross the desert, such as birds traveling between Africa, Asia, and Europe, which need this green respite for shelter and food on their journeys of thousands of kilometers.
“There's a plan to plant 100 million mangrove seeds in the Emirates by 2030,” explains Vidhyaa Chandramohan , a photojournalist who documents environmental projects like this reforestation project. “Gray mangroves—Avicennia marina—are being planted,” she says, standing in front of one of her photos, which shows a green area in Abu Dhabi next to skyscrapers built in the desert.
Chandramohan, who has presented his work on Emirati coastal conservation at events such as the Xposure International Conservation Congress , prefers not to discuss Dubai's controversial artificial islands, such as Palm Jumeirah or The World, and focuses on initiatives that benefit coastal biodiversity.
He mentions the Khor Kalba reserve in Sharjah, the oldest mangrove forest in the Emirates, which boasts specimens up to eight meters tall. “It's open to the public to educate and raise awareness of these ecosystems,” he says, adding that mangroves, in addition to mitigating extreme temperatures, improve leisure activities: “You can do ecotourism activities such as kayaking.” The Khor Kalba visitor center opened in 2021 and is one of the nature-based solutions projects promoted by Emirates Nature and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Beyond these initiatives, in some Emirati cities, urbanization is devastating ecosystems important for flora and fauna. These types of protectionist and restorative policies must be extended and maintained over the long term if biodiversity is to be guaranteed in a region where natural life is becoming increasingly difficult.
Earth: Deforestation and hunting threaten Africa's Great MigrationIf there's one spectacular migration, it's the Great Migration of East Africa . More than one and a half million wildebeest, gazelles, and zebras travel between 1,000 and 3,000 kilometers each year through the Serengeti National Park (Tanzania) and the Masai Mara National Reserve (Kenya) in search of water and food. They cross the savannah, where they face predators such as lions, hyenas, and crocodiles; and now also more pressing dangers, such as deforestation, hunting, and the climate crisis. "The changes are undeniable," say Angela and Jonathan Scott, conservationists and photographers who have been observing the migration firsthand for decades. They both live and work in Kenya and insist that the situation is alarming: "We are witnessing extinctions in real time."
According to Global Forest Watch, between 2001 and 2023 , Kenya lost nearly 12% of its trees , many of them in the Mau Forest, about 170 kilometers from Nairobi. This large mountain forest is crucial for the migration of herbivore herds. “It helps maintain the flow of the Mara River, which feeds the Serengeti. Without the forest, the river disappears, and if that happens, the migration collapses,” warns the conservationist couple. Added to this is the current climate instability. “Seasonal rainfall is no longer predictable,” they lament. And they highlight threats to four other wildebeest migrations in the area: those of Athi-Kaputiei, Amboseli, Mara-Loita, and Tarangire-Manyara; and to those of elephants , vultures, and flamingos.
American oceanographer Ralph Pace captured an image that went viral around the world in 2021, depicting a sea lion heading for a face mask thrown into the sea off Monterey, California. He won the prestigious World Press Photo award for it. Pace spends his life underwater, closely observing the behavior of many migratory species, such as whales and turtles, but also those that do not. “In a world affected by climate change, those that cannot adapt or move are in danger,” he says, citing one of the ocean's greatest voyagers: the humpback whale.
Whales defecate constantly, and the iron in their feces fuels the growth of phytoplankton, which is responsible for more than 50% of the oxygen we breathe. If whales don't migrate and spread their waste everywhere, phytoplankton can't thrive.
Ralph Pace, American oceanographer
“Humpbacks travel to cold latitudes to feed and return to warm waters to breed, but the population in this area of the Arabian Sea doesn't migrate because the water here is warm and they have food thanks to the monsoon winds. This is a problem for their survival because it limits their genetic diversity and makes them extremely vulnerable. Boat accidents and hunting have reduced their numbers, but without receiving new members from other populations, their recovery is difficult,” he explains to this newspaper in Sharjah , where he has come to share his experiences with migratory animals. In any case, he believes the situation for marine species is complicated: “Not migrating is difficult, but doing so can be even more so, because they have to cross the ocean, which is full of hooks.”
Pace is saddened that only economically profitable species, such as tuna, are protected, but that those that aren't, such as the vaquita marina —a mammal endemic to the Gulf of California— have their days numbered . And he reminds us that although we tend to think of humans as separate from animals, that's not the case, since their migration even allows us to breathe. "Whales defecate constantly, and the iron in their feces fuels the growth of phytoplankton, responsible for more than 50% of the oxygen we breathe. If whales don't migrate and spread their waste everywhere, phytoplankton won't thrive," he concludes.
Each year, three or four generations of monarch butterflies complete the migration from their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada to their wintering grounds in Mexico. Those of the longest-lived generation, known as the "Methuselahs," travel up to 4,500 kilometers in a migration that is now in danger.
Every year, WWF monitors the size of the wintering colony in Mexico. The perimeter of all trees that host butterflies has been reduced from 20 hectares in the 1990s to one in the last year.
Jaime Rojo, Spanish photographer
“Every year, WWF monitors the size of the wintering colony in Mexico. The perimeter of all the trees that host butterflies has been reduced from 20 hectares in the 1990s to one in the last year,” says Spanish photographer Jaime Rojo, who has spent half his life photographing these insects and whose work has been awarded two World Press Photo awards in a row.
The 43-year-old Madrid native studied Environmental Sciences at the Autonomous University of Madrid and traveled to Mexico in 2004 to work in conservation. “As soon as I arrived, I went to see the monarch butterflies in Michoacán and was fascinated. There's nothing like it.”
In 40 years, the monarch butterfly population has declined by 90%, Rojo explained in an interview with this newspaper . In addition to deforestation for crops like avocado, the problem is the disappearance of milkweed, the only plant where they lay their eggs and on which the caterpillars feed. “In the 1990s, a lethal combination of broad-spectrum herbicides, such as glyphosate, began to be used, and corn and soybean plants were genetically modified to resist any chemical, but the rest died. A decade after implementing this, the milkweed population in the Midwest of the United States decreased by almost 60%, and the monarch began to collapse,” Rojo summarizes in front of a photo of his exhibition in Sharjah, in which a caterpillar can be seen on a milkweed next to a corn crop.
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