---
title: "Animal Migration"
description: "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 Serenge"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/animal-migration-mt_bK84sPehyP
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/animal-migration-mt_bK84sPehyP.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# 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

Subject: Science · Area: Animals of the World · Ages 7 to 9
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/animal-migration-mt_bK84sPehyP

## Ready when they can

- 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

## Lesson: Animals on the move: migration

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.

*(drawing: The Arctic tern flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and back, about 44,000 miles a year, farther than any other animal on Earth.)*

**Example.** 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.

**Tip.** 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.

**Recap.** Migration is a repeated long journey, and animals make it to find food, raise their young safely, or follow the changing seasons.

## Practice

24 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [More Polar Animals](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/more-polar-animals-mt_7OJjLOl0fz)
- [Animals Everywhere](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/animals-everywhere-mt_v3Vz_Pgjjv)
- [Savanna & Grassland Animals](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/savanna-and-grassland-animals-mt_YynJoQcm_M)

## Opens up

- [Three Kinds of Adaptations](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/three-kinds-of-adaptations-mt_EaWjCyn8W2)
- [Ocean animal migrations](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/ocean-animal-migrations-mt_Te-ulgYMUd)