Monarch butterfly migration is unusual because what?

No single butterfly completes the round trip

They migrate only once a decade

Wildebeest migration in East Africa follows what?

Seasonal rainfall and the grazing it produces

Migration carries a major cost, which is what?

Enormous energy expenditure and high mortality

Permanent loss of navigation ability

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Animals & Wildlife Medium ⚡ 10 Questions ⏱️ ~7 Mins +100 XP

How Animals Find Their Way

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Animals cross oceans and continents with no map, and we are still working out how.

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About this topic

Migration poses a problem that looks impossible: an animal that has never made a journey arrives at a destination thousands of kilometres away, often at a specific site, sometimes having set off alone. The answers involve several senses working together — a magnetic sense, the position of the sun and stars, smell, and in some species inherited direction. None of it is fully explained, and the honest state of the science is that we know a good deal about what animals can detect and much less about how they combine it.

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How Animals Find Their Way: all 10 questions and answers

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1Which bird makes the longest annual migration of any animal?
- A The barn swallow
- B The Arctic tern Correct
- C The albatross
- D The swift
Answer: B. The Arctic tern

Why: It travels between Arctic and Antarctic regions each year, covering tens of thousands of kilometres and seeing more daylight than any other animal.
2Monarch butterfly migration is unusual because what?
- A No single butterfly completes the round trip Correct
- B They fly only at night
- C They swim part of the way
- D They migrate only once a decade
Answer: A. No single butterfly completes the round trip

Why: The return journey spans several generations, so the butterflies arriving have never seen the destination their ancestors left.
3Salmon returning to spawn find their home stream mainly using what?
- A Sight
- B Sound
- C Water temperature alone
- D Smell Correct
Answer: D. Smell

Why: They appear to imprint on the chemical signature of their birth stream as juveniles, then use the magnetic field for the ocean stage.
4Many migrating birds are thought to sense direction using what?
- A The colour of the sky
- B Wind direction alone
- C The Earth's magnetic field Correct
- D Air pressure alone
Answer: C. The Earth's magnetic field

Why: The mechanism is still debated, with proteins in the eye and iron-containing tissue in the beak both proposed.
5Which mammal makes the longest migration?
- A The elephant seal
- B The grey whale Correct
- C The caribou
- D The wildebeest
Answer: B. The grey whale

Why: Grey whales travel between Arctic feeding grounds and Mexican breeding lagoons. Caribou make the longest overland migration.
6Wildebeest migration in East Africa follows what?
- A Seasonal rainfall and the grazing it produces Correct
- B A fixed calendar date
- C Ocean currents
- D Predator movements
Answer: A. Seasonal rainfall and the grazing it produces

Why: The route shifts year to year with the rains, which is why the timing cannot be reliably predicted far in advance.
7How do many nocturnal migrating birds orient themselves?
- A By moonlight brightness
- B By listening for the coast
- C They do not orient at all
- D By the pattern of stars Correct
Answer: D. By the pattern of stars

Why: Experiments in planetariums showed young birds calibrate on the rotation of the night sky, learning where the axis of rotation lies.
8Sea turtles returning to nest typically go where?
- A A different beach each time
- B Open ocean
- C The beach where they hatched Correct
- D The nearest available beach
Answer: C. The beach where they hatched

Why: They appear to imprint on the magnetic signature of the beach as hatchlings and use it to return decades later.
9Bats navigating in darkness rely primarily on what?
- A Smell alone
- B Echolocation Correct
- C Magnetic sense alone
- D Infrared vision
Answer: B. Echolocation

Why: They emit calls and read the returning echoes. Some species also use magnetic and visual cues on longer journeys.
10Migration carries a major cost, which is what?
- A Enormous energy expenditure and high mortality Correct
- B Loss of the ability to breed
- C Permanent loss of navigation ability
- D Reduced lifespan in all cases
Answer: A. Enormous energy expenditure and high mortality

Why: Many individuals die en route. Migration persists only where the food or breeding advantage at the destination outweighs that.

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