Why Do Animals Migrate?

Animal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individuals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is found in all major animal groups, including birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and crustaceans. Migration is a behavioral adaptation that helps animals survive.

Scientists aren't really sure exactly how some animals figure out how to get to where they are going. They think that some animals use landmarks like rivers and streams to find their way. Other animals may navigate by the position of the sun and stars. Scientists think some animals use smell to figure out where they are going. And there are some species that may use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate. However they do it, migration is a behavioral adaptation that has to help animals survive over time.


The trigger for the migration may be due to various. Migration is driven by a simple fact: Resources on Earth fluctuate. Warm summer months may be followed by inhospitable cold. Plants – or other meals – may be abundant, but only for a short time. The best place to give birth or hatch young may not be a good place to find food so some factors that triggers migration includes

• local climate, 
• local availability of food, 
• the season of the year or for mating reasons.

The Atlantic Salmon begins its life in a river and migrates downstream to the ocean. After several years, it heads back upstream to lay eggs and begin the cycle all over again.  Some crustaceans also migrate for breeding. In many species of crabs, the females will move into shallow coastal waters to mate and lay her eggs, then they return to deeper ocean waters. Frogs and toads often move very short distances to breeding ponds and lakes to lay their eggs. Some sea turtles, like the loggerhead, return year-after-year to the same sandy beach on which they hatched to lay their eggs.
 
To be counted as a true migration, and not just a local dispersal or irruption, the movement of the animals should be an annual or seasonal occurrence, such as birds migrating south for the winter; wildebeest migrating annually for seasonal grazing; or a major habitat change as part of their life, such as young Atlantic salmon leaving the river of their birth when they have reached a few inches in size.

List of Animals that Migrate, Animal Migration List

• African Elephant: It migrates to find food during the wet and drys seasons.
• American Buffalo: The American Buffalo is the heaviest land animal in North America.
• American Golden Plover: The American Golden Plover is a medium-sized shorebird.
• Arctic Tern: A small bird that flies from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again each year.
• Basking Shark: A huge filter feeder and the second largest fish.
• Bat: Bats are the only flying mammal. Some bats, like the Red bat, migrate.
• Beluga Whale: A small, white, toothed whale that lives mostly in cold, Arctic waters.
• Birds: Many birds, like the bobolink, the Arctic tern, and the Golden Plover, migrate.
• Blue Shark: A sleek, fast-swimming shark with blue skin.
• Bowhead Whale: A baleen whale rich in blubber.
• Bull Shark: A blunt-nosed, dangerous, gray shark can that live in fresh water rivers and lakes.
• Canada Goose: The Canada goose is a large North American bird that honks.
• Caribou: Caribou are herbivores that live in Arctic regions.
• Cockatoo: Cockatoos are birds with a large, feathery crest and a hooked bill.
• Crab: A crab is an animal with a shell. Many crabs migrate to reproduce.
• Dogfish Shark: A small, very common, relatively harmless shark found worldwide.
• Dolphin: A dolphin is a small, toothed whale, a marine mammal.
• Earthworm: An earthworm is a little animal with a long, soft body and no legs.
• Elephant: There are two types of elephants, the Indian elephant and the African elephant.
• Frog: Frogs are amphibians that migrate back to the pond, marsh, or lake where they hatched as tadpoles, and lay their own eggs there.
• Fruit Bat: Fruit bats are large bats that eat fruits and flowers.
• Hammerhead Shark: Large predators with a hammer-shaped head.
• Gnu: The gnu is a fast-running, herding, grass-eater from eastern Africa.
• Goose: The Canada goose is a large North American bird that honks.
• Gray Whale: A baleen whale that is a bottom feeder; it migrates long distances.
• Great White Shark: An enormous, ferocious predator found worldwide.
• Greenland Shark: A large, slow-swimming shark with glow-in-the-dark eyes.
• Hammerhead Shark: Large predators with a hammer-shaped head.
• Hummingbird: Hummingbirds are tiny birds that eat flower nectar.
• Humpback Whale: A long-flippered baleen whale that sings and frolics in the water.
• Ladybug: Tiny flying insects that eat garden pests. Some ladybugs migrate.
• Mako Shark: Large predators that are the fastest swimming fish!
• Mallard Duck: The Mallard is a common wild duck that is the ancestor of most domestic ducks.
• Manatee: Manatees are gentle, slow-swimming, aquatic mammals.
• Salmon: Salmon are fish that live in the sea and spawn in fresh water.
• Nightingale: A small songbird that sings beautiful, complex songs, often at night.
• Oriole: The Baltimore Oriole is a black and orange bird that eats fruit and nectar.
• Reindeer: Reindeer are herbivores that live in Arctic regions.
• Sea Turtle: Sea turtles are large marine turtles.
• Snow Goose: Snow Geese are migratory birds from North America.
• Swordfish: The swordfish is a large fish with a long, sharp bill.
• Tiger Shark: Large predators found worldwide in warm seas.
• Toad: Toads are amphibians with poison glands. Toads migrate back to the pond, marsh, or lake where they hacthed as tadpoles, and lay their own eggs there.
• Tuna: A large, bony fish that migrates thousands of miles across the oceans.
• Umbrellabird: A bird with a large tuft of feathers on its head.
• Wildebeest: The wildebeest is a fast-running, herding, grass-eater from eastern Africa. Also known as the gnu.
• Zebra: Zebras are hoofed mammals that have black and white stripes.

The intelligence behind the migration

Some may say that natural selection shapes these journeys, and it has programmed this traveling nature into many animals, putting a destination in their genes. But the innate sense that points these migratory animals in the right direction has remained something of a mystery to science.

" The genetic structure of these abilities is not well understood..." Åkesson said.

 Scientists do know, however, that migrants can use the sun, the stars, reflected light, the Earth's magnetic field and their sense of smell to find their way. It remains a mystery to researchers.

Some says that its just natural instinct to migrate since it is inscribed on the gene. Regardless of its genetic components, migration is not mandatory. In the early 1900s, the pronghorn antelope population, for example, stopped migrating as their numbers dwindled. After roughly 50 years, the pronghorn population in Wyoming returned a certain level and the migration resumed, according to Jon Beckmann, an associate conservation ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society.

So the big questions.

 who gave the animals that instinctive intelligence to migrate without prior directions?

if we say is their amazing gene. then who fabricated such amazing gene?

Conclusion

Believe in a creator is more reasonable.