Figure 2:

Migration is a physiologically challenging life-history stage, and there are many adaptations that animals have evolved for optimizing fitness (Fig. 1). Migratory species should optimally move through areas of high fitness in the migratory arena; however, anthropogenic change is altering the path through the migratory arena, which has consequences for lifetime fitness (represented by curved arrows). Some important conservation challenges are highlighted in this figure to demonstrate how they interface with fitness impairment. Conservation agendas must focus on mitigating such challenges to maintain high fitness of individual migrants and conserve migratory phenotypes, populations and species.