Also: Arctic tern, monarch butterfly, wildebeest, Serengeti, long-distance migration
Some animals make enormous yearly journeys, from Arctic terns flying pole to pole to monarch butterflies crossing North America and wildebeest following the rains.
Values as stated in the cited paper's abstract.
| Property | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Arctic tern annual distance (some individuals) | over 80,000 km | Egevang 2010 |
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Egevang and colleagues tracked 11 Arctic terns with 1.4 g geolocators and found some flew more than 80,000 km a year, the longest known animal migration, with a previously unknown stopover in the North Atlantic.
As reported in: Egevang, Stenhouse, Phillips et al. (2010). Tracking of Arctic terns Sterna paradisaea reveals longest animal migration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.0909493107
Zhan and colleagues sequenced 101 Danaus genomes and found monarchs were ancestrally migratory and spread out of North America, with the strongest migration-linked selection centred on flight muscle function.
As reported in: Zhan, Zhang, Niitepõld et al. (2014). The genetics of monarch butterfly migration and warning colouration. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature13812
Holdo and colleagues compared 14 movement models and found the Serengeti wildebeest migration was best explained by rainfall-driven grass intake and grass nitrogen content.
As reported in: Holdo, Holt, Fryxell (2009). Opposing Rainfall and Plant Nutritional Gradients Best Explain the Wildebeest Migration in the Serengeti. The American Naturalist. doi:10.1086/597229
Abstract only