Background: Migration is a widespread strategy among ungulates to cope with seasonality. Phenology, especially in seasonally snow-covered landscapes featuring “white waves” of snow accumulation and “green waves” of plant green-up, is a phenomenon that many migratory ungulates navigate. Guanacos (Lama guanicoe) are native camelids to South America and might be the last ungulate in South America that migrates. However, a detailed description of guanacos´ migratory attributes, including whether they surf or jump phenological waves is lacking.Methods: We quantified the migratory movements of 21 adult guanacos over three years in Patagonia, Argentina. We analyzed annual movement patterns using net squared displacement (NSD) and home range overlap and quantified snow and vegetation phenology via remotely sensed products.Results: We found that 74% of the individual guanacos exhibited altitudinal migrations. For migratory guanacos, we observed fidelity of migratory ranges and residence time, but flexibility around migration propensity, timing, and duration of migration. The scarce vegetation and arid conditions within our study area seemed to prevent guanacos from surfing green waves; instead, guanacos appeared to avoid white waves.Conclusion: Our study shows that guanaco elevational migration is driven by a combination of vegetation availability and snow cover, reveals behavioral plasticity of their migration, and highlights the importance of snow phenology as a driver of ungulate migrations.

Protected areas (PAs) in the Brazilian Amazon have proven to be critical in preserving the rainforest but face increasing threats. Since 2019, illegal activities and land conflicts involving PAs have escalated due to the weakening of environmental institutions. Therefore, up-to-date research is needed to evaluate agricultural pressures on PAs—including Sustainable Use Areas, Indigenous Territories, and Strictly Protected Areas—given its importance in driving deforestation in the Amazon, and to identify hotspots of concern. We analyzed property registration, deforestation, pasture expansion, and cattle transaction records within 158 PAs in the Brazilian state of Pará, which holds most of the remaining forest and the highest rates of deforestation. Our findings show that nearly a quarter of Pará’s 2019–2022 deforestation occurred within PAs, undermining their effectiveness as conservation tools. Despite prohibitions, we found illegally registered private properties in most PA categories including indigenous territories and over a 100% increase in deforestation within PAs from 2015–2018. Over 90% of PAs contained pasturelands in 2022, but only half of them had registered cattle transactions within their borders, which suggests the presence of clandestine cattle activities in these areas as well. Indirect sales to slaughterhouses coming from PAs increased during the study period, potentially due to efforts by ranchers to obscure such cattle origins from companies that are increasingly monitoring their direct suppliers. Finally, we identified 17 high-risk PAs concentrating most threats. Focusing monitoring efforts on property registries and cattle transactions in these areas could significantly reduce illegal deforestation and illegal cattle ranching. While PAs are considered to be cornerstones of forest conservation efforts, our findings show that current policies fail to prevent cycles of land grabbing, illegal ranching, and deforestation that can eventually lead to the downgrading, downsizing, and degazetting of PAs. Given this context, validating property claims, tracing cattle sales, and penalizing deforestation are urgently needed to halt these cycles that threaten PAs.

BackgroundMigration is a widespread strategy among ungulates to cope with seasonality. Phenology, especially on seasonally snow-covered landscapes featuring “white waves” of snow accumulation and “green waves” of plant green-up, is a phenomenon that many migratory ungulates navigate. Guanacos (Lama guanicoe) are native camelids to South America and are one of the last ungulates in South America that migrates. However, a detailed description of this species’ migratory attributes, including whether guanacos surf or jump phenological waves is lacking. MethodsWe quantified the migratory movements of 21 adult guanacos over three years in Patagonia, Argentina. We analyzed annual movement patterns using net squared displacement (NSD) and home range overlap and quantified snow and vegetation phenology via remotely sensed products. ResultsWe found that 74% of the individual guanacos exhibited short altitudinal migration. Additionally, we observed fidelity of migratory ranges and residence time, but flexibility around migration propensity, timing and duration of migration. Interestingly, we found that the scarce vegetation and arid conditions within our study area prevented guanacos from surfing green waves; instead, guanacos appeared to avoid white waves. ConclusionsOur study demonstrates that guanaco elevational migration is driven by a combination of vegetation availability and snow cover presence, reveals behavioral plasticity of their migration, and highlights the importance of snow phenology as a driver of ungulate migrations.