Environmental Graffiti

The Most Spectacular Migration on Earth: The Red Crabs of Christmas Island

If you are indoors when it happens, the first thing you notice is the crackling noise, a chorus of clicking. The march has begun. Looking outside, the sight beggars belief: the entire forest floor, and even the roads that run through it, swathed in a sea of red. So thickly do the crabs blanket the routes to the shoreline that they can easily be seen from air. What we are witnessing is the annual migration of the red crabs – one of the most spectacular animal migrations on the planet.

Continue reading...

The Great Salmon Migration

Diadromous is not a word one hears every day, but this word is in fact the key to one of nature's most startling migrations – that of the Pacific salmon. From the warm climes of the northern Sunshine State (California, that is) and the cool coniferous forests of British Columbia, to the chilling waters of the Bering Strait, these fish yearly perform migrations that cover thousands of miles.

Continue reading...

The Serengeti: Host of the Greatest Overland Migration on Earth

Synonymous with the Serengeti is the migration of the zebra and wildebeest as they chase the rains north. In east Africa, nearly two million mammals make this epic journey as they follow the rains that bring life to this vast, parched area. Thousands will die, and those that survive will have faced one of the most arduous of nature's journeys – only to do it again and again.

Continue reading...

The Great Sardine Run and the Largest Gathering of Predators on Earth

Some animal events are so epic that they jolt us from our fallacious seat at the centre of the universe. When shoals of sardines materialise containing billions of individual fish, we’re in the realm of an ocean megalopolis – except one that travels as a single biomass fifteen miles long, visible from space. This is the sublime and scarcely comprehensible story of the great sardine run, which also represents the largest gathering of predators on the planet.

Continue reading...

The UN’s Gloomy Forecast for Global Warming Refugees

A new report prepared in advance of the largest ever conference on the issue, details the findings of a two year preliminary study regarding how people react migrationally to changing climates. The conference,sponsored by the UN, will be held in Bonn, Germany and will be attended by over 600 experts and representatives of almost 80 nations. This largest ever conference on environmental based migration reflects the growing global nervousness that the threat of mass human relocation poses.

Continue reading...