Now scientists say that same insider knowledge shapes the springtime migrations of moose and bighorn sheep. Researchers tracked the movements of 267 bighorn sheep and 189 moose in Wyoming, Idaho and South Dakota that wore GPS devices on collars. The longer a herd had been established, the better the tracked animals were at finding the best forage, and the more likely they were to migrate at all. The long, slow improvement in forage-finding over decades indicates that herds build on the cultural knowledge across generations. Results indicate that within herds that had first entered their home range even 30 to 50 years before, only about a quarter of the tracked animals on average migrated.

Source: National Post September 06, 2018 18:00 UTC