Global environmental change is reshaping biodiversity by altering species connectivity, genetic diversity, and long-term viability. A key challenge is to disentangle how historical, environmental, and anthropogenic factors jointly shape contemporary genetic patterns. Here, we combine population genomics with landscape ecology tools to investigate the drivers of levels of genetic diversity and patterns of population genetic structure using more than 20 k Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Northern chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), a wide-ranging Alpine ungulate. Based on 465 individuals sampled across the European and Dinaric Alps as well as the Tatra Mountains, we revealed a pronounced hierarchical genetic structure, with clusters showing marked geographic variation in genetic diversity across the species range. Our results show that current genetic diversity largely reflects the genetic legacy of past climatic conditions, with areas of long-term stability acting as reservoirs of genetic variation. At the same time, large Alpine rivers emerge as strong barriers to gene flow, emphasizing the powerful role of natural landscape features in shaping genetic structure. In contrast, recent anthropogenic infrastructures exerted limited detectable influence, suggesting that contemporary patterns are still predominantly driven by natural processes of population differentiation. By explicitly quantifying the relative contributions of long-term climatic stability and contemporary landscape features to genetic diversity and connectivity, this study demonstrates that historical processes outweigh recent anthropogenic fragmentation in shaping current genetic patterns in this mountain ungulate.

Epizootics can profoundly impact population dynamics, affecting both survival and reproduction over relatively short periods. However, the longer-term demographic patterns that may follow an outbreak, as well as the underlying mechanisms, remain poorly documented. To investigate these dynamics, we compared the demographic parameters of females in an Alpine ibex population before (10 years), during (2 years) and after (two subsequent 7-year periods) a severe pneumonia outbreak. Using an integrated population model combining female capture-mark-recapture and census data, and accounting for individual heterogeneity, we estimated the age-specific breeding probability, survival and female population growth rate. We observed an increase in breeding probability after the epizootic, rising from pre-epizootic values of 0.63 to over 0.79 in high-quality females and from 0.03 to over 0.24 in low-quality females that had not bred the previous year. The age of primiparity decreased for most females, and while high-quality females that had previously reproduced were less likely to reproduce again compared to non-reproductive females before the epizootic, the opposite pattern was observed after the epizootic. These findings are consistent with the expected reduced impact of density-dependent processes following the 62% decline in female population size during the epizootic, which affected female survival across all age categories, except for prime-age non-reproductive individuals. This greater reproductive investment contrasted with a decline in survival, which was 6.7% lower for two-thirds of the adult female population (and 2% lower for the entire adult female population) during all post-epizootic periods. The persistent presence of the pathogen in the population, potentially indicating chronic or latent infection, combined with recent environmental changes (e.g. warmer conditions), may have prevented adult survival from returning to pre-epizootic levels. This sustained shortfall in adult survival compared to pre-epizootic levels resulted in a weak post-epizootic recovery of the population (+2.4% year-1) driven only by high-quality females. These findings illustrate that long-term monitoring populations during adverse environmental conditions, such as disease outbreaks, can provide insights into how long-lived iteroparous females navigate survival-reproduction trade-offs in response to pathogen exposure and access to resources. This can help anticipate demographic responses to emerging infectious diseases and climate change.

Abstract Animal movement paths display substantial complexity and variability, promoting efforts to identify universal rules and models that best describe them. Using high‐resolution (≥10 Hz) movement from 43 vertebrate species spanning diverse taxa, body sizes, and lifestyles, we show that paths are universally composed of straight‐line steps interspersed with sharp turns, echoing patterns documented in lower taxa such as bacteria. We report how vertebrate “fundamental steps”—straight travel segments between successive detected turns (with F stepduration as the turn‐to‐turn interval and F steplength as the corresponding distance when displacement is available)—and “fundamental turn angles” ( F turnangles ; net changes in travel heading between successive steps) vary with species' mass, locomotor mode, behavior, and environment. Here, “fundamental” denotes the finest scale step/turn events resolvable under our sampling rate and turn‐detection criteria; these event‐scale steps/turns are intrinsically different from the straight‐line segments inferred from low‐resolution position data. To explain these relationships, we posit that animals inherently move in a straight line until sensory information signals a better heading, triggering a turn. Across all species examined, animals spent the vast majority of their travel time moving in straight lines (species‐level means >90%), with turns representing discrete decision points influenced by body size, locomotor mode, and ecological context. Larger animals turned less frequently, consistent with biomechanical constraints of mass and rotational inertia, while aerial species often exhibited higher turning rates driven by soaring flight demands. We further show that turns can be linked to diverse behavioral drivers, including prey pursuit, obstacle avoidance, predator evasion, and exploitation of environmental energy. By explicitly quantifying turns, we clarify how distributions of step durations and turn angles interact to shape movement patterns and why different statistical models (e.g., correlated random walks, Lévy flights) emerge when lower resolution data are analyzed. Finally, we demonstrate how fundamental steps and turns can be incorporated into an agent‐based modeling framework using penguins as a case study, enabling reconstruction of realistic tracks and prediction of movement responses to environmental change. Straight‐line travel punctuated by decision‐driven turns thus emerges as a fundamental principle of vertebrate movement, linking fine‐scale movement structure, ecological context, and emergent patterns of space use.

Abstract Camera traps have been widely used in the past decade to monitor the abundance of unmarked animal populations. Most estimation methods rely either on the number of times animals pass through the detection zones, like random encounter models (REM), or on the number of capture occasions in a time‐lapse program when animals were seen on the pictures, like the instantaneous sampling (IS) approach. Yet, the ability of these two popular method classes to both reliably detect population trends and estimate population size has rarely been evaluated. We filled this gap by simulating a setup of either 100 or 25 camera traps randomly distributed on a 2600‐ha area (respectively ≈4 and 1 trap/km2), along with the movements of a fictional population of 300 roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). Simulations were informed by field data on habitat, habitat selection, and activity patterns of GPS‐monitored roe deer. Under idealized conditions (e.g., perfect knowledge of day range and visibility), both IS and REM provided unbiased population estimates, though uncertainty remained substantial (CV from 15% to 30% with 4 and 1 trap/km2, respectively). However, our results show that neglecting imperfect detectability leads to severe biases in absolute density estimation. Moreover, despite idealized conditions and large sampling efforts, a simulated 20% population decline over 5 years went undetected by both approaches in 65%–75% of simulations at high trap density and 80% at low trap density. Testing other sampling strategies to improve sensitivity either led to an unchanged population size estimation precision (stratified sampling) or to biased estimated trends (sampling only in high‐quality habitats). Simulating animals with a 10 times larger home range led to miss the decline less frequently (5%– 40% at high trap density, 33%–67% at low trap density). These results suggest that the key metric for camera trap use is the average number of different traps visited per animal, which in turn depends on trap density, home‐range size, and space use heterogeneity. We provide an R package allowing the reader to reproduce these simulations, and carry out their own simulations.

Anthropogenic land conversion is putting increasing pressure on wildlife populations around the world. To mitigate impacts, it is necessary to develop a detailed mechanistic understanding of how animals are affected by different types of human activity. A key challenge is to disentangle the effects of static infrastructure, like roads or buildings, and the presence of humans in the landscape. To address this question, we examined if terrestrial mammals altered their movement behaviour around buildings in response to reduced human mobility during COVID-19 lockdowns. We compiled GPS tracking data from 35 study sites across five continents, for 10 carnivore species and 13 herbivore species, totalling >1 million location records from 586 individuals. For each study, we used integrated step selection analysis to test the extent to which animals changed their avoidance of buildings as lockdown took effect, leveraging the recently released Microsoft MLBuildings dataset of global building locations. Analysis of population-level effects revealed that, in areas with high Human Footprint Index (HFI), animals tended to show a significant reduction in their avoidance of buildings during lockdown, but not in low HFI areas. No such trend was detected during equivalent periods in years other than 2020, indicating that behavioural changes were a result of reduced human mobility during lockdowns. Overall, our findings suggest that animals living alongside humans exhibit greater plasticity when people change their behaviour, likely indicating the combined effects of environmental filtering and habituation. More generally, our study provides a critical first step towards developing evidence-based tools for forecasting how wildlife movement behaviour may change in response to different land-use strategies, human activities, conservation interventions or environmental perturbations.

The ability to evaluate fatigability during locomotion is crucial in various fields, from wildlife biology to clinical medicine. In wildlife, resistance to fatigue, or endurance, can determine the success of certain predator-prey encounters and underpins the ability of animals to migrate or disperse over long distances. In clinical contexts, endurance provides a reliable marker of physiological function, which could help guide exercise prescriptions and aid clinical decision making. However, current methods do not allow for accurate, non-invasive assessment of physical capacities over extended periods in natural and clinical settings. We propose a method for modelling the intensity-duration relationship based on dynamic body acceleration (DBA) records, from which we derived critical intensity, a key metabolic threshold in exercise physiology that delimits heavy from severe intensity domains. We recorded accelerometer data from 19 free-ranging species (n=272) across a wide interspecific and intraspecific range: from rats (10-2 kg) to elephants (103 kg), including oncology patients to regular runners. The three-parameter hyperbolic DBA-duration model revealed an excellent fit on experimental DBA records (median r2=0.995). By retrieving laboratory estimates of metabolic threshold for 15 species (n=688) from the literature, we demonstrated that critical DBA is a reliable proxy of metabolic threshold assessed in the laboratory both at the interspecific (r2=0.88, P<0.001) and intraspecific (Homo sapiens) levels (r2=0.90, P=0.051). The proposed method opens up new avenues for deciphering interactions among animals and between animals and their environment, through the lens of movement and physiology, but also for individualising the assessment of physical capacity in a clinical context.

Endurance is crucial for animal survival yet remains poorly studied in free-ranging animals. An animal's endurance time decreases as a hyperbolic function of increasing exercise intensity, called the speed-duration relationship. This relationship allows for defining critical speed, the endurance threshold separating efforts where metabolic homeostasis is achievable from efforts where fatigue accumulates drastically. Using tracking collars on domestic dogs during hunting sessions, we demonstrated the ability to determine the speed-duration relationship and its parameters: the initial speed (Si), critical speed (Sc) and distance reserve (DAC,max). This new method exhibits good repeatability across sessions and bypasses conventional laboratory assessment, allowing the characterisation of physical capacities in natura. Our approach provides the unique possibility to study when, where and how long free-ranging animals experience fatigue and helps uncover how environmental factors affect their energy expenditure.

Travel is considered to account for a substantial proportion of endothermic species energy expenditure. However, transport costs depend on speed of the animal and slope angle of the terrain. We used biologging data from six ungulate species within the French mountains, combined with mapping data, to examine how these different species reacted to slopes by varying travel speed, and chosen ascent and descent angles, in relation to vectoral dynamic body acceleration (VeDBA; as a proxy for energy expenditure). As predicted by theory and as seen in pumas, animals travelled obliquely so that the angle that any individual experienced was lower than that of the topography. Travel speed affected the VeDBA-based proxy for cost of transport (COT) even though most species moved slower on steeper inclines. Models that considered speed, COT, slope, and habitat type showed clear relationships between COT and slope with variation across habitat types and according to species. Species-specific choice of travel speeds and slope chosen by animals underpins fundamental differences in species physiology and ecology via links in heat production and time spent per altitude. Understanding these interrelations points to the complexity of factors affecting space use by mountain ungulates and is crucial for conservation efforts, especially in fast-changing environments where energy expenditure, temperature changes, and resource accessibility impact population wellbeing.

The ongoing development of recreational activities in natural areas raises concerns about their environmental impacts, particularly in mountain ecosystems. Those biodiversity hotspots are highly attractive for outdoor activities, but they are also highly sensitive to human disturbance. However, little is still known about the impacts of massive nature-based sporting events, whose number has recently exploded. We focused on the impact of two types of massive sporting event (MSE) that occurred in the Bargy massif (northern French Alps) over a period of 10 years: a trail running competition with 600-1300 participants spread over four races, and stages of three emblematic cycling races, including the Tour de France. Based on the GPS monitoring of 139 individuals, we analysed several behavioural metrics during daytime and the following night when the MSE occurred, and compared them with reference data without MSE, recorded on the same dates but in other years. We revealed that trail running events exacerbate the 'corridor of fear' in Alpine ibex, a chronic and proactive response to the infrastructure concentrating human activities, that reshaped behavioural decisions at multiple spatiotemporal scales. Ibex redistributed farther from the hiking trails used by trail runners (-9% GPS locations within 500 m, representing a 20% relative decrease, +8% in the 500-1000 m range, representing a 25% relative increase). We also found increased movements (+14%) and activity levels during daytime in individuals close to the event route the night before the MSE. By contrast, cycling events had much more limited effects on ibex distribution and behaviour. While cycling events occurred primarily during summer when most of the ibex were already far from the roads, trail running events occurred at the beginning of the birth period and crossed the seasonal range of ibex, raising questions about the consequences for reproductive outputs. These findings highlight the need to consider the timing and route of MSE to avoid areas used during critical periods in the biological cycle of species, and more generally to address the rapidly growing impacts of MSE on mountain species already challenged by climate change during the crucial spring-summer period.Read the free for this article on the Journal blog.

Recurring events like migrations are an important part of the biological cycles of species. Understanding the factors influencing the timing of such events is crucial for determining how species face the pervasive consequences of climate change in highly seasonal environments. Relying on data from 406 GPS-collared Alpine ibex Capra ibex monitored across 17 populations, we investigated the environmental and individual drivers of short-distance migrations in this mountain ungulate. We found that vegetation phenology, including spring growth and autumn senescence, along with snow dynamics-snowmelt in spring, onset of snow cover in autumn-were the main drivers of the timing of migration. In spring, ibex migration timing was synchronized with the peak of vegetation green-up, but more in males than in females. Specifically, a peak of green-up occurring 10 days later delayed migration by 6.4 days for males and 2.7 days for females. This led to increased differences in migration timing between sexes when the peak of green-up occurred early or late in the season. In addition, ibex delayed migration timing when the length of the spring season was longer and when the date of snowmelt on ibex summer ranges occurred later. Similarly, in autumn, prolonged vegetation senescence and delayed onset of snow cover led to later migration. Overall, we observed a high degree of behavioural plasticity, with individuals responding to inter-annual variations in vegetation and snow phenology, even though the extent of these adjustments in migration dates was lower than the magnitude of the interannual changes in environmental conditions. Nonetheless, females could be less plastic than males in their timing of spring migration, likely due to the parturition period following migration forcing them to trade off foraging needs with predation risk. As the identified drivers of ibex migration are known to be and will continue to be largely impacted by climate change, the capacity of ibex to respond to such rapid changes could differ between sexes.

Fiber is essential for rumen health, microbial fermentation, and the energy supply of herbivores. Even though the study of fecal fiber contents (neutral detergent fiber NDF, acid detergent fiber ADF, and acid detergent lignin ADL) using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has allowed investigating nutritional ecology of different herbivore species, NIRS calibrations are species-specific and require a large number of samples for predictions. A multispecies calibration would be an advantage since samples from different herbivores could be used to calibrate a model capable of predicting the fecal fiber content of other herbivores. To date, however, multispecies models have not been developed to predict fiber contents in the feces of herbivores. Here, we fill this gap by calibrating three fiber multispecies models (NDF, ADF and ADL) using fecal samples from domestic and wild herbivore species. We also evaluated the effect of incorporating sodium sulfite in fiber determination protocol. The initial dataset consisting of 445 samples of six herbivore species was used to calibrate (80% of the samples) and validate (20% of the samples) the models. Subsequently, 63 samples of five herbivores not included in the calibration set were used for the external validation of the model. Since sodium sulfite did not significantly improve fecal fiber prediction, our model was developed without this compound. The multispecies models obtained were highly accurate determining NDF, ADF and ADL (R2CAL, coefficient of determination in calibration, ≥ 0.93, R2VAL, coefficient of determination in validation, ≥ 0.91) and independent of external confounders. For external validation, the accuracy in predicting fecal samples in other herbivore species was also satisfactory, with consistently better values for NDF (R2VAL, 0.86-0.94) and ADF (R2VAL, 0.80-0.95) than for ADL (R2VAL, 0.66-0.89). We show that multispecies NIRS calibrations can be used with high accuracy to assess fecal fiber contents across diverse herbivore species. This finding represents a significant advance in the study of the nutritional ecology of herbivores with contrasting foraging patterns. In the future, widening the data range (e.g., species and locations) of the initial dataset could further improve the accuracy of these models.

Animal movement paths display substantial complexity and variability, leading researchers to seek underlying rules that govern these patterns and mathematical models that best describe them. Using high-resolution (≥ 10 Hz) movement from 43 vertebrate species across diverse taxa, mass, and lifestyles, we show that movement paths are universally composed of straight-line steps interspersed with sharp turns, echoing a pattern documented for lower taxa such as bacteria. We report how these vertebrate ‘fundamental step lengths’ and ‘fundamental turn angles’, which are intrinsically different from the straight-line paths detailed in studies using low resolution position data, vary with species’ mass, lifestyle, behaviour, and environmental context. To explain these, we posit that animals inherently move in a straight line until sensory information signals a perceived better heading, which instigates a turn. The constellation of fundamental step lengths and turn angles over varying time intervals affects how well different models of animal movement (such as random walk or Lévy flight) fit lower resolution data. By examining turns as decision points, we can seek drivers of animal movement patterns and thereby work to predict future paths under varying conditions.

Wild and domestic ungulates can be infected with the same species of gastrointestinal parasitic nematodes. These parasites have free-living stages in the environment that contribute to the ease of transmission among different host species. In addition, gastrointestinal nematodes have developed resistance to anthelmintics which is now considered a major problem for the livestock sector. In a context where wild and domestic ungulates share the same pastures, the maintenance and circulation of resistant gastrointestinal nematodes between species have rarely been explored. In the European Alps, domestic sheep are driven to high-altitude summer pastures and live in sympatry with wild ungulates for several months each year. In this study, we investigated the nemabiome of domestic sheep and Alpine ibex, Capra ibex, in three different areas of the French Alps to evaluate parasite circulation between the two host species. The Alpine ibex is a protected mountain ungulate that is phylogenetically related to sheep and hosts nematode species common to sheep. Using internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2) nemabiome metabarcoding, we found sheep and ibex share similar gastrointestinal nematodes, except for a few species such as Marshallagia marshalli and Trichostrongylus axei. This suggests that the long-term co-occurrence of sheep and ibex on mountain pastures has promoted the exchange of gastrointestinal nematodes between the two hosts. Based on the sequencing of the isotype 1 of the beta tubulin gene, associated with benzimidazole resistance, we found resistant nematodes in all sheep flocks and in all ibex populations. Our results demonstrated that ibex can host and shed resistant strains before transhumant sheep arrive on pastures, and thus could act as a refuge or even contribute to maintaining resistant gastrointestinal nematodes. The relative role of ibex in the maintenance and circulation of resistant strains in sheep remain to be determined.

With the ongoing rise in global average temperatures, animals are expected to increasingly dedicate their time and energy to thermoregulation. In response to high temperatures, animals typically either seek for and move into thermal refuges, or reduce their activity during the hottest hours of the day. Yet, the often lower resource availability in thermal refuges, combined with the reduction of foraging activity, may create indirect energetic costs of behavioural thermoregulation, forcing individuals to further adjust their behaviours under different spatial contexts. To elucidate such complex behavioural responses of individuals living in different landscapes, we studied how alpine chamois behaviour (Rupicapra rupicapra), a cold-adapted endotherm, varied in relation to both temperature and within-home range access to thermal refuges. We used Hidden Markov Models to analyse individual time-budgets and daily habitat use of 26 GPS-tagged females monitored during summer in the French Alps. Females showed heat stress avoidance behaviours above a threshold temperature of 17.8°C, increasing the use of forest and northern slopes by 2.8% and 2.2%, respectively, for each 1°C increase in temperature. Individuals with access to forests also increased daily time spent foraging, while individuals with access to northern slopes increased the time spent relocating at the expense of foraging. Including local landscape context and jointly analysing resource selection and behavioural activity is hence key for improved insights into nuanced changes in individual responses to climate change in different spatial contexts, providing also an improved evidence base for wildlife managers to identify and protect key thermal cover habitats.

Caring for newborn offspring hampers resource acquisition of mammalian females, curbing their ability to meet the high energy expenditure of early lactation. Newborns are particularly vulnerable, and, among the large herbivores, ungulates have evolved a continuum of neonatal antipredator tactics, ranging from immobile hider (such as roe deer fawns or impala calves) to highly mobile follower offspring (such as reindeer calves or chamois kids). How these tactics constrain female movements around parturition is unknown, particularly within the current context of increasing habitat fragmentation and earlier plant phenology caused by global warming. Here, using a comparative analysis across 54 populations of 23 species of large herbivores from 5 ungulate families (Bovidae, Cervidae, Equidae, Antilocapridae and Giraffidae), we show that mothers adjust their movements to variation in resource productivity and heterogeneity according to their offspring’s neonatal tactic. Mothers with hider offspring are unable to exploit environments where the variability of resources occurs at a broad scale, which might alter resource allocation compared with mothers with follower offspring. Our findings reveal that the overlooked neonatal tactic plays a key role for predicting how species are coping with environmental variation. Combining a large-scale dataset of 23 ungulate species (in which newborns follow contrasting tactics of predator avoidance) with continuous-time stochastic movement models, the authors reveal that there are multiple dimensions of maternal movement behaviour and space use.

Ticks are major vectors of various pathogens of health importance, such as bacteria, viruses and parasites. The problems associated with ticks and vector-borne pathogens are increasing in mountain areas, particularly in connection with global climate change. We collected ticks (n = 2,081) from chamois and mouflon in 4 mountainous areas of France. We identified 6 tick species: Ixodes ricinus, Rhipicephalus bursa, Rh. sanguineus s.l., Haemaphysalis sulcata, H. punctata and Dermacentor marginatus. We observed a strong variation in tick species composition among the study sites, linked in particular to the climate of the sites. We then analysed 791 ticks for DNA of vector-borne pathogens: Babesia/Theileria spp., Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., Anaplasma phagocytophilum, A. marginale, A. ovis, and Rickettsia of the spotted fever group (SFG). Theileria ovis was detected only in Corsica in Rh. bursa. Babesia venatorum (2 sites), Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. (B. afzelii and B. garinii; 2 sites) and Anaplasma phagocytophilum (3 sites) were detected in I. ricinus. Anaplasma ovis was detected at one site in I. ricinus and Rh. sanguineus s.l. SFG Rickettsia were detected at all the study sites: R. monacensis and R. helvetica in I. ricinus at the 3 sites where this tick is present; R. massiliae in Rh. sanguineus s.l. (1 site); and R. hoogstraalii and Candidatus R. barbariae in Rh. bursa in Corsica. These results show that there is a risk of tick-borne diseases for humans and domestic and wild animals frequenting these mountain areas.

Recreational activities often result in a spatial and/or temporal activity shift in wildlife. With the concurrent development of outdoor activities and increase in temperatures due to climate change, mountain species face increasing pressures in terms of managing their activity pattern to limit both risk exposure and thermal discomfort. Using more than 15 years of long-term GPS and activity sensor data, we investigated how female northern chamois, Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra, adjust their summer circadian activity to spatiotemporal variation in both temperatures and hikers’ presence. Chamois' behaviour was more affected by high temperatures than by hikers’ presence. During the hottest days, they shifted their activity peak earlier in the morning, were more active at night and during activity peaks, less active during daytime and had longer morning and evening peaks compared to the coldest days. Yet, total daily activity was only slightly different during the hottest days compared to the coldest days. Conversely, hikers' disturbance had weak effects on activity levels and on the timing of activity peaks. This is especially true for temporal disturbance (weekdays versus weekends and public holidays), possibly because most weekdays in summer fell during school holidays. Only during the hottest conditions, the morning activity peak was shorter and the evening peak longer in females living in the most exposed areas compared to females living in the least exposed areas. One possible explanation for the overall low effect of hikers' disturbance may be that behavioural changes buffering animals from high temperatures and hikers' presence (e.g. moving away from trails) allow them to just marginally modify their activity pattern. In the context of ongoing socioenvironmental changes, it is critical to conserve habitats providing thermal refuges against summer heat and protection from disturbance to mitigate potential detrimental consequences.

ABSTRACTSeasonal migrations are central ecological processes connecting populations, species and ecosystems in time and space. Land migrations, such as those of ungulates, are particularly threatened by habitat transformations and fragmentation, climate change and other environmental changes caused by anthropogenic activities. Mountain ungulate migrations are neglected because they are relatively short, although traversing highly heterogeneous altitudinal gradients particularly exposed to anthropogenic threats. Detecting migration routes of these species and understanding their drivers is therefore of primary importance to predict connectivity and preserve ecosystem functions and services. The populations of Alpine ibexCapra ibex, an iconic species endemic to the Alps, have all been reintroduced from the last remnant source population. Because of their biology and conservation history, Alpine ibex populations are mostly disconnected. Hence, despite a general increase in abundance and overall distribution range, their conservation is strictly linked to the interplay between external threats and related behavioral responses, including space use and migration. By using 337 migratory tracks from 425 GPS-collared individuals from 15 Alpine ibex populations distributed across their entire range, we (i) identified the environmental drivers of movement corridors in both spring and autumn and (ii) compared the abilities of three modeling approaches to predict migratory movements between seasonal ranges of the 15 populations. Trade-offs between energy expenditure, food, and cover seemed to be the major driver of migration routes: steep south-facing snow-free slopes were selected while high elevation changes were avoided. This revealed the importance of favorable resources and an attempt to limit energy expenditures and perceived predation risk. Based on these findings, we provided efficient connectivity models to inform conservation of Alpine ibex and its habitats, and a framework for future research investigating connectivity in migratory species.