Animal Migration
Know that many animals make incredible journeys called migrations — Arctic terns fly from pole to pole, monarch butterflies travel thousands of miles across North America, wildebeest cross the Serengeti following rain, and humpback whales swim between polar feeding grounds and tropical breeding waters — and that these journeys are linked to food, breeding, and seasons
What a learner can do afterwards
- Defines migration as a regular long journey animals make
- Names at least 3 migratory animals with their routes or destinations
- Explains that migration is driven by food availability, breeding, or seasonal changes
1 · Read
Migration is a long journey that an animal makes again and again, often at the same time every year. Birds, whales, butterflies, and even the wildebeest herds you just read about on the savanna migrate.
Every fall, monarch butterflies leave Canada and the United States and fly thousands of miles to warm forests in Mexico. When spring comes, they fly north again. That whole round trip is a migration.
Wildebeest herds walk after rain, because rain grows fresh grass. Whales swim from cold feeding seas to warm seas where calves are born safe. Terns and monarchs fly. Animals migrate to find food, keep babies safe, or follow the seasons.
Animals migrate for real reasons: to find food, to have their babies somewhere safe, or because the weather is about to change. Look for those three reasons and you can guess why almost any animal migrates.
Migration is a repeated long journey, and animals make it to find food, raise their young safely, or follow the changing seasons.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.