KINSHASA, April 14 -- A wildebeest, a gorilla and a giraffe were among the life-size puppets to begin a 20,000-kilometre trek across the globe Wednesday from the DR Congo capital, to raise awareness about migration due to climate change.

The animals are part of The Herds project and aim to have crossed around 10 countries between central Africa and the Arctic by August.

Their journey will take them through Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, France and Norway, among other countries.

"This project tries to give the public a powerful emotional sense of what's happening to the planet," project producer David Lan told AFP in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The trek includes "now 20, later 40, later 70 animals from all ov...