Animals walk across continents

These animals are leaving their homes. They're on a 20,000-kilometre journey from central Africa. It began on 9th April.

The name of this project is The Herds. Its journey began with 20 puppet animals. 50 more will join them along the route.

The Herds is a type of artwork. It makes people think about the world's climate emergency. David Lan organised the project.

David Lan: "This project tries to give the public a powerful emotional sense of what's happening to the planet by this journey, by now 20, later 40, later 70 animals from all over West Africa, Morocco, Europe, who are travelling to escape from the damage done to their ecosystem."

The Herds went through London. Its route goes across Africa and Europe. Lots of people make this journey.

Artists wanted to make the animals from recycled cardboard. But puppets move a lot. They needed wood and rubber too.

Siphokazi Mpofu: "Then in this project, we start from the strictly only cardboard. But then because of the challenges of the cardboard, we ended up like adding wood, which is plywood. And then the material that we are using is mostly a recycled material, which is the cardboard that you can see on the animals, the skin is made out of cardboard. And then the joints is the black rubber tendons."

The Herds ends its journey in Norway. It'll get a traditional welcome from the Arctic Sami people. Climate problems are changing their lives. Then, in August, the animals will go into the Arctic Circle.

The project has an important message about the climate emergency. The Herds is asking people to change.