have you ever gotten a trip away from
home maybe you travel in a car to see
some family or took a plane to go
somewhere fun on vacation well did you
know that a lot of animals take trips to
many different kinds of animals move
from one place to another and when they
do we say they migrate but not all kinds
of trips that animals make are
considered migration when squeeks moves
from the lab to the kitchen we don't
call that migration sorry squeeks but
maybe we can call it snack time most of
the time migration means moving over a
long distance so animals can migrate to
different parts of the country or even
different parts of the world now
migrations also happen at a certain time
for example you might have seen birds
flying south for the winter
that's a kind of migration but they're
not just going on a trip for fun animals
migrate for good reasons many birds
migrate in the winter because the
weather is just too cold for them so
they need to go someplace warmer other
animals migrate long distances to look
for food and sometimes creatures migrate
so that they can have babies in a place
they know is safe it doesn't matter the
animals move overland through water or
in the air if an animal moves a certain
distance and does it at a certain time
it's a pretty good bet that they're
migrating so what are we waiting for
let's take a look at some cool animal
migrations let's meet the champion of
migration on land the caribou caribou
live way up north in places like
northern Canada and the state of Alaska
and one group of caribou called a herd
moves around this area in a big loop and
they do it every year for most of the
winter this herd of caribou lives here
right on the border between Canada and
Alaska then in early spring around April
the caribou go on the move they travel
about 600 kilometres north to an area
near the ocean and this place near the
coast has lots of good food for the
caribou to eat so this is where the
mother caribou have their babies but
it's not such a great place for long and
that's because by the middle of summer
the coast becomes home to big swarms of
mosquitoes and other biting insects so
the herd goes on the move again
but this time
move away from the ocean then in the
fall when things start to get really
cold they move back down south where
there's more food and the weather is
less harsh finally when spring arrives
they start all over again and at the end
of the year some of these caribou have
watched almost 5000 kilometres whoo now
when it comes to migration in the sea
whales go farther than any other kind of
animal lots of kinds of whales migrate
but the whale that migrates the farthest
is this one the humpback whale most
kinds of humpbacks spend the summer in
cool waters up north near places like
Alaska all summer they eat things like
shrimp and small fish building up the
energy they'll need for the trip they're
about to take when the water starts to
get too cool the humpbacks swim south to
warmer waters near Hawaii and other
tropical islands there the whales rest
and have their babies and they see their
until the babies are strong enough to
swim back north
and it can be a long swim to the longest
recorded swim for a humpback whale is
over 15,000 kilometers but one animal
that's in the running for making the
longest migration ever is the Arctic
Tern this bird isn't very big it's only
about the size of the ruler you use at
school and some of the time it lives
near the North Pole when winter comes
though it doesn't just go a little bit
south the Arctic Tern flies over 35,000
kilometers to the very tip of South
America that's about as far south as you
can go it's not only one of the longest
migrations by air is one of the longest
migrations made by any animal how do all
these animals find their way after all
they don't have maps or phones or
computers like people do well different
animals have their own ways to keep them
from getting lost some animals look to
the sky and use the Stars Moon and Sun
to help them find their way others stay
on the right path by watching the
landscape and following features like
mountains and rivers caribou humpback
whales and Arctic Terns
are just some of the animals that make
these amazing journeys but fish insects
and even jellyfish migrate to that's
something to think about the next time
you're on a trip thanks for joining us
on scishow kids do you have a question
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at scishow comm see you next time