Why Do Animals Migrate?
Humans used to migrate too, believe it or not. Migration is the movement of a group of animals depending on seasons or availability of resources. They migrate to warmer climates during the winter, and cooler climates during the summer. Or they move because there is no more water in there area, or because they have to travel to their mating grounds.
There is seasonal migration that changes at the weather changes ‘š and often, warmer weather means more of an availability of food. Geese travel south for the winter, but stay up north in cooler regions during the spring and summer months; they are ‘seasonal migrators., Antelope often have to migrate because of the availability of green grass, which depends on various areas of precipitation and drought. Their patterns vary from year to year, whereas geese always travel to the same area, stopping at the same landmarks each year. The antelopes are called ‘nomadic migrators, as their patters are never the same.
Another type of migration is because of mating ‘š salmon spawning happens only once in their lifetime; when they are born, they leave the stream that they are born in, but when they are ready to spawn, they migrate directly back to the same stream that they were born in, laying their eggs and having them fertilized in very ideal locations, that have less predators, more food, calmer water. They find their way back by using the specialized scents from their stream, that they have memorized.
Another very common and popular migration pattern is that of whales in the Pacific Ocean, who migrate up and down the West Coast of the U.S. They migrate as far north as Alaska, and as far south as South America. They migrate due to a combination of all these factors, as rearing their young is much easier in warmer waters closer to the equator, but there is much more to eat in the more northern seas.
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