The great migrations

Journeys that cross oceans, continents or generations.

• Monarch ButterflyDanaus plexippus
• Arctic TernSterna paradisaea
• ReindeerRangifer tarandus
• Green Sea TurtleChelonia mydas
• European EelAnguilla anguilla
• Humpback WhaleMegaptera novaeangliae
• Blue WildebeestConnochaetes taurinus
• Atlantic SalmonSalmo salar
• Wandering GliderPantala flavescens

About this list

The Arctic tern makes the longest annual migration of any animal, flying between the Arctic and the Antarctic and, over a life of thirty years, covering a distance comparable to several return trips to the Moon.

The monarch's is stranger. No individual butterfly completes the round trip, so the route cannot be learned from an animal that has flown it — the navigation is inherited outright.