How and Why Animals Migrate

    Reasons to Move

Some animals travel relatively short distances to find food or more favorable living or breeding conditions.Most animals that migrate do so to find food or more livable conditions. Some animals migrate to breed.

The Atlantic Salmon begins its life in a river and migrates downstream to the ocean. After several years, it heads back upstream to lay eggs and begin the cycle all over again.

Some crustaceans also migrate for breeding. In many species of crabs, the females will move into shallow coastal waters to mate and lay her eggs, then they return to deeper ocean waters.

Frogs and toads often move very short distances to breeding ponds and lakes to lay their eggs. Some sea turtles, like the loggerhead, return year-after-year to the same sandy beach on which they hatched to lay their eggs.

Sometimes animals migrate to find a place to hibernate. Little brown bats live in trees in warm months, then in cold weather they migrate to caves where it is warmer.