Animal migration

Animal migration is the regular movement of animals between distinct regions, often seasonal and linked to breeding, feeding, or environmental change.

Animal navigation: The processes animals use to determine direction and reach locations. Migrants combine navigational cues to travel between distant seasonal ranges.
Seasonality: Recurring changes in environmental conditions over the course of a year. Seasonal shifts in food, temperature, and daylight often cue animal movements.
Arctic tern: A seabird that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the Antarctic region. Its annual round trip is among the longest known animal migrations.
Ecological connectivity: The movement of organisms, materials, and ecological processes among habitats. Migrants connect ecosystems that would otherwise exchange fewer organisms and nutrients.
Dispersal: The movement of individuals away from their birthplace or population into new areas. Unlike recurring migration, dispersal usually changes where an individual lives or breeds.
Magnetoreception: The ability to detect and use information from magnetic fields. Some migratory animals use Earth’s magnetic field as a compass or map cue.
Breeding: The production of offspring through reproduction. Many species migrate to reach suitable breeding grounds.
Monarch butterfly migration: The multigenerational seasonal movement of monarch butterflies between North America and overwintering sites in Mexico or California. Several generations complete a route that no single butterfly travels end to end.
Animal-mediated nutrient transport: The transfer of nutrients between places by moving animals. Migrants carry nutrients across ecosystem boundaries through feeding, waste, and death.
Nomadism: Movement among locations without a fixed, regularly repeated route or schedule. Nomadic movements track changing resources but lack migration’s recurrent pattern.

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