An 8,000 km Expedition to Follow the Migration of Zebras

After nearly a year at a standstill, we’re finally back on the road. And we’ve done it in a big way, setting off on a one-of-a-kind Expedition unlike anything we had ever done before.

Gabriele and Erica, founders of Sto Gran Tour, set off in recent days to cross South Africa and Botswana by 4x4 for around 8,000 km, with a special goal: to follow, document, and tell the story of the zebra migration, one of Africa’s most spectacular yet least-known natural wonders.
 

South Africa and Botswana: in search of the zebras

The zebra migration is one of the largest in Africa, but also one of the least known. That’s right: it remained unknown until just a few years ago, when a group of local researchers realized that these animals had started moving again between Botswana’s lands during the rainy and dry seasons.

The reason this migration remained “under the radar” lies in the changes humans have made to the natural landscape, even unintentionally. By putting up fences and building settlements, zebras were thrown off course: no longer recognizing their territory or knowing how to move through it, they stopped migrating. But after years of adaptation and improvements in local environmental conditions, they managed to rebuild their route: today, more than 30,000 zebras have resumed their migration—the very one Gabriele and Erica will try to follow.

The little-known zebra migration

 
Source: Africa Geographics

Botswana’s mass zebra migration is the longest migration of any land animal in the world. Much of the route crosses remote, harsh, and difficult terrain. Fortunately, however, the migration begins and ends in two of Botswana’s most spectacular national parks: Chobe National Park in the north and Makgadikgadi Pans National Park in the south.

Gabriele and Erica will document the migration during the dry season, following the herds as they move from the south in search of water and green grazing lands in the north. To make things clearer, here is a summary of the migration cycle:

1) FROM MARCH TO APRIL/MAY, MIGRATION
The zebra herds move from south to north to spend the dry season in the cool, damp pastures of northern Botswana, enjoying the abundant water of the rivers. 

2) FROM MAY TO NOVEMBER, STOP
The zebras remain in northern Botswana. When the rains begin to fall between late November and early December, the zebras begin their long migration toward the interior of the Kalahari Desert.

3) FROM DECEMBER TO JANUARY, MIGRATION
When the rains begin to fall between late November and early December and the dry season comes to an end, the zebras begin their long migration southward into the Kalahari Desert, moving from northern to southern Botswana. They will remain on the move until January, when they reach the Makgadikgadi salt pans. 

4) FROM JANUARY TO MARCH, STOP
It is precisely in the Makgadikgadi salt pans that the herds will remain until they repeat the long return journey at the end of March, heading back to the humid north in time for the dry season, which begins again in April and May.
 

Covid-19 and migration: the strength to move forward

In the past, the zebras’ migratory habits were disrupted by unexpected human interventions that proved devastating for the species. Fences, buildings, and grazing areas altered the environment, making the route impossible—and at times unrecognizable—for these animals. Although the herds remained disoriented and lost for a long time, little by little they returned to their primordial habit: they began migrating again, following the natural instinct that drives them each year to seek water and then return home, the starting point of the migration.

After the year we have all lived through, it is impossible not to notice a similarity—and that is the very heart of this project: humankind, too, has had to radically change its habits because of a global pandemic that forced each of us to rethink priorities, spaces, and relationships, at immense sacrifice.

In the age of hyper-connectivity, we found ourselves denied even the most basic connection: the one with our families and friends. In the age of affordable, guaranteed mobility, we saw barriers, borders, and restrictions rise up, limiting for the first time our individual freedom, our freedom of movement, our own “migration.”

And yet, just as nature teaches us, it is never too late to rediscover our balance and our path. By nature, humans change, adapt, and move forward—and so will we, learning once again to savor freedom.

Toward autumn, when we hope to regain a measure of normality, a documentary telling the story of this Expedition will be released.