Many marine vertebrates, including mammals, fish, birds, and reptiles, make long

Question

Many marine vertebrates, including mammals, fish, birds, and reptiles, make long range migrations, which are typically related to breeding grounds/nurseries. HOW do the above animals find their way across such great distances, often returning every year to the same location? Give at least three different examples from the vertebrate species listed above.
Many marine vertebrates, including mammals, fish, birds, and reptiles, make long range migrations, which are typically related to breeding grounds/nurseries. HOW do the above animals find their way across such great distances, often returning every year to the same location? Give at least three different examples from the vertebrate species listed above.

Explanation / Answer

Migration is defined as large scale movement of species from one environment to another. Animals migrate over relatively long-distances on a seasonal basis, to find suitable environment for breeding or to escape harsh environmental conditions. Many animals like birds and fish migrate during specific seasons.

Examples: Salmons migrate to fresh water for breeding. They do not have their parents to guide them since they will not survive for that long time. Therefore, they rely on some inherent mechanism to migrate.

Salmons rely on Earth’s magnetif field to navigate their direction. They have their own in built magnetic sense which is inherited from their parents, and use it to navigate across the sea. They remember the magnetic fields they encountered when they first entered the sea as youngsters, and navigate their way back to the exact same stream to spawn.

Another research indicates that fish rely upon their sense of smell to locate their birth streams. Fish have a keen sense of smell. They can distinguish their home stream from the others, and follow their natural stream’s scent.

Birds: Migratory birds use the sun, stars, and the earth’s magnetic field to know the direction of their migration. Birds like pegions have a small zone in their brain made of magnetite. It acts as a compass to guide the bird migration. Moreover, birds use cues like sighting of features like rivers, coastlines, and mountain ranges; smell, and observe stars and use sun for guidance. Therefore, they use all these cues together to guide their way.

Leatherback turtles use the clues like ocean currents, the earth’s magnetic field, and water chemistry to guide them in migration. For leatherback turtle hatchlings, moonlight reflected from the sea is found to be an important visual cue to guide movement. Other types of turtles uses orbital movement of waves as a clue.

However, for turtles, the most important device for navigation is the earth’s magnetic field. In oceanic waters, compass mechanism is used detect their location and where to migrate.

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