How wildlife movement data shapes conservation
Movement ecology turns tracking into action
Think about all the places you visit in a day. The ability to move, find food, water, shelter, and connect with other people is essential to your well-being. Animals depend on a similar freedom of movement to survive. When their habitats become fragmented by roads, fences, or settlements, it becomes harder for animals to find everything they need to survive. By studying wildlife movements—a field known as movement ecology—scientists gain critical insights into how species use landscapes.
© WWF-US/Gareth Bentley
Yet despite its potential to benefit people and wildlife, movement ecology is not fully reflected in the tools and targets that guide conservation decisions like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework or the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing this challenge is the focus of a new paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, first authored by Talia Speaker, Executive Manager of WILDLABS at WWF: "Emerging innovations in movement ecology to address planetary challenges.”
Here are five ways animal movement data can and should inform better conservation decisions for the benefit of both people and wildlife:
1. Movement data reveals what animals need
Animals move around for many reasons—to find food, drink water, mate, migrate…and more. These movements can vary by season, life stage, and the condition of the surrounding habitat. To understand these patterns, scientists can use a host of tools, including GPS tags and collars, satellite tags, radio or acoustic tags, or even light-level geolocators, dependent on the species and its environment.
The resulting movement data reveal where, when, and why animals move, making it possible for conservationists to identify critical habitat, migration routes, stopover sites, and corridors that would otherwise be missed. In conservation practice, these data help decision-makers determine which places need protection, restoration, or reduced disturbance.
2. Movement data makes connectivity measurable
Human infrastructure such as roads, fences, and settlements can make it difficult for animals to move between habitats. Many species rely on movement between locations to feed, breed, and access seasonal resources, so barriers can affect not only individual survival but entire populations.
Even when habitats fall within protected areas, they may not be functionally connected, limiting the effectiveness of those protections. By tracking animals as they move across landscapes, scientists can determine whether protected areas are truly connected and identify critical movement corridors that are just as important as the habitats themselves.
3. Movement data can warn us if populations are struggling
Changes in movement behavior, dispersal, home range use, or migration can show that animals are under stress before population declines are obvious. These changes in movement patterns may be due to habitat loss, climate change, human disturbance, disease, or resource shifts. By tracking animal movements over long periods of time, conservationists can identify the problem and intervene earlier, when actions are still more effective and less costly.
4. Movement data supports coexistence
© WWF-US/Danielle Brigida
By analyzing movement data to understand where and when potentially dangerous wildlife moves through human-inhabited areas, conservationists can help communities avoid conflict. For example, in Africa, satellite collars on lions help researchers warn villages when lions are nearby, allowing herders to move livestock to safety before conflict occurs. In Assam, India, GPS-collars on Asian elephants are informing the development of coexistence strategies to reduce damage caused by elephant raids on nearby rice and tea fields.
5. Movement data tells a story
Last but not least, long-term movement data can inspire wonder and awe, as it builds a narrative for individual animals as they make impressive journeys across the globe. These data turn abstract conservation issues into personal narratives: a sea turtle crossing vast oceans, a migratory bird flying a gob smacking 8,425 miles from Alaska to Tasmania, or a spotted hyena navigating 4,000 miles of landscape in Namibia. These stories make conservation more compelling by making animal journeys personal; movement data can reveal the real paths animals take through human-altered landscapes and impressive odysseys they embark on to survive.
Looking ahead…
Today, scientists have access to more animal movement data than ever before, along with the computing power needed to analyze it. Yet movement data is not yet incorporated into the many of the indicators, frameworks, and decision-making tools used to set conservation priorities and measure progress. As a result, valuable information about how species move across landscapes often remains disconnected from policy and practice.
Closing this gap through better tools, updated biodiversity indicators, and shared data infrastructure is essential to ensuring that movement ecology can fully inform conservation action and help create a future where both people and wildlife thrive.
“A tagged elephant or albatross can now act as a ‘living sensor’ of the planet, telling us about disease risk, shifting climates, even disasters before they strike,” says Talia Speaker. “Realizing the full power of that lies in investing in the innovations and coordination to connect these signals to the decisions and metrics that matter for conservation.”
By showing us how animals navigate a rapidly changing world, movement ecology helps ensure that conservation decisions are informed not just by where wildlife is, but where it needs to go.
Sources
- Speaker T, Beery S, Davidson SC, Kays R, Rutz C, Solomon JN, Batist C, O'Donnell SAL. 2026 Emerging innovations in movement ecology to address planetary challenges.