Inspiration

11 Incredible Animal Migrations

Think you travel a lot? You've got nothing on the humpback whale (which travels a whopping 16,000 miles annually) or the monarch butterfly, whose migration can cross the Pacific Ocean. We've rounded up some of the most incredible animal migrations around the world.
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    Yva Momatiuk/John Eastcott/Minden Pictures

    Sandhill Cranes

    Every March, more than 500,000 of these giant birds converge on Nebraska's Platte River basin before continuing their pilgrimage north.

  • Mark Conlin/Alamy

    Sockeye Salmon

    Alaska's Bristol Bay is the largest sockeye salmon spawning region in the world. Millions of the fish return to Alaska's freshwater from the ocean every year to spawn.

  • Ingo Arndt/Minden Pictures

    Monarch Butterflies

    The annual monarch butterfly migration spans more than 4,000 miles and occasionally crosses the Pacific Ocean.

  • Jean-Paul Ferrero/Auscape/Minden Pictures

    Red Crabs

    Christmas Island's famous red crabs (more than 100 million of them) take over the island every year when they travel to the ocean to lay their eggs.

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    Straw-Colored Fruit Bats

    Eight million straw-colored fruit bats descend on Zambia's Kasanka National Park, beginning in October.

  • Mauricio Handler/National Geographic Society/Corbis

    Whale Sharks

    Little is known about the migratory patterns of whale sharks, but thousands of them descend on the Yucatan Peninsula mid-May through September every year.

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    Emperor Penguins

    As March of the Penguins taught us, hundreds of thousands of emperor penguins make the trek inland from the Antarctic coast every year to provide safe hatching grounds for their young.

  • Anna Omelchenko/Alamy

    Flamingos

    During the summer, flamingos travel between the alkaline lakes in eastern Africa's Rift Valley. Pictured here at Lake Nakuru in Kenya, the flamingos feed on algae abundant in the lakes.

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  • The Africa Image Library/Alamy

    Wildebeests and Zebras

    More than a million creatures—wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, and their predators—traverse the game preserves of Kenya and Tanzania in search of greener pastures during the summer months.

  • Visuals Unlimited, Inc./Patrick Endres

    Caribou

    Caribou are one of the most nomadic species, typically traveling about 3,000 miles per year—the longest of any terresterial animal. In North America, caribou travel from the coast during the summer to the interior in the winter.

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  • Corey Ford/Stocktrek Images/Corbis

    Humpback Whales

    Humpback whales travel nearly 16,000 miles every year, as they make the trek from their polar feeding waters in the summer to tropical waters to breed and give birth during the winter.