“It is important that animals move, because in moving they carry out important ecological functions like transporting nutrients and seeds between different areas,” said Marlee Tucker, a biologist at Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center and Goethe University, Frankfurt and the study’s lead author. The ability to move and find food helps keep some imperiled species viable.

There has been exponential growth in data on wildlife movement as technology has evolved, opening new windows into the secret lives of animals. “We used to have one dot on a map twice a day,” said Roland Kays, a biologist at North Carolina State University who participated in the study. “Now we have a point as much as every second and know exactly where they are going, how they are avoiding people, how they are crossing the road and catching prey. It’s big for determining how animals die or where they die and how that affects populations.”

In fact the science has advanced so much, it’s clear that the protection of these critical corridors is lagging. Ryan Zinke, secretary of the Interior Department, just announced a new effort to account for long-distance migrations that cross federal lands.

“We all know that animals go where animals want to go, and more often than not that’s dependent upon natural features like watersheds,” Mr. Zinke said, rather than whether the land is publicly or privately owned. He signed an order to foster cooperation on migrations, “working with ranchers to modify their fences, working with states to collaborate on sage brush restoration, or working with scientists to better understand migration routes,” he said.

The new migration study was made possible by Movebank, a global repository of scientific research on animal movement that has cast much new light on vagility. Records of where animals move can be shared with other researchers, and combined with data on vegetative cover, elevations and temperature, anywhere on the globe, from NASA and other sources.

“It’s an example of open data and data sharing that allows you to answer new questions and give data a second life,” said Dr. Kays, who is also a director of Movebank.