Animal Migration Science: Strategies, Dangers & Epic Journeys

[00:00:00]Hi, my name is Ania Wielgopolan, I work in Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences,and today we're going to talk about great immigrations in animal kingdom.

[00:00:28]Today's topic is animal migration and it is one of the most fascinating wildlife spectacles known to human eye.

[00:00:40]It has fascinated humans for years, for millennia actually and for a very good reason, because some of most astonishing features of endurance, of strength of power are performed by those long-distance migrants.

[00:01:03]So today we're going to find out what mmigration is and why some animals choose this strategy?

[00:01:11]Why is it good? But also, what are the dangers brought by migration, what are different strategies?

[00:01:23]taken by animals to migrate and How is it ruled? How is it managed? What are triggering mechanisms?

[00:01:31]How do animals navigate, how it is possible that they are able to survive a long journey?

[00:01:39]Again, why is it dangerous and why some of them unfortunately are not able to surviveHow do we cope with tracking it, measuring; how the science copes with that, and at the very end We're going to learn five top chosen by me amazing stories of specific migratory animals.

[00:02:10]So first of all, what is migration? It's not every movement that animal makes this it's a relatively long distance movement for starters of individuals, of whole population, usually on seasonal the base. So its first of all seasonal. The trigger for the migration may be local climate, availability of food or mating reasons.

[00:02:43]But to be counted as migration, not just local dispersal, the movement should be, like I said, annual on our seasonal like for example in northern hemisphere birds migrating south for the winter and wildbeest migrating annually or for seasonal search of food or grazing What is most important, what makes migration different it's change of habitat for the part of their life; for example like young Atlantic salmon, living the river of their birth and go to the sea so there's a change of habitat from freshwater to salty oceanic water. So sets migration is apart from other Forms of movements is it involves traveling from one type of habitat to another.

[00:03:50]Which groups of animals do that? We are accustomed to migratory birds There's this term migrant to birds in polarpedia And this is what we usually associate with migration Because we observe them very often even if in our EDU-ARCTIC monitoring system we note very first appearance of particular birds such as arctic tern, cuckoo or crane and those migratory birds. (of course is the first appearance when they come back from southern regions. Migratory birds our first thing that comes to our mind, but frankly migration is happening in all major branches, groups of animal kingdom like, birds- of course, but also mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians or even insects and crustaceans.

[00:04:48]So it is quite common Most people think it's mostly a seasonal movement of flocks of birds we can observe between breeding control of breeding sites, but in fact, it is a biological phenomenon that happens in every Is in every group and it's a very common strategy to survive harsh orchanging environment, if the animals choose not to hibernate, because they either usually either hibernate or migrate during harsh time of the year, so here we can observe some of the famous migrators like Guinness records, for example, like I said even crustaceans migrate those in the zooplankton like crabs larvae, on my crab larvae copepods.They're the smallest migrants on Earth, one or two millimeters long. In contrast, the largest migrant is blue whale, which is Even almost 30 meters long.

[00:06:02]The longest mammal migration record belongs to another whale, another oceanic, mammal, this is a humpback whale a little smaller, but the route it takes is the longest,up to 8600 kilometers each way.

[00:06:25]Also, at the end we're going to talk about the longest insect migration, and the record belongs to monarch butterflies It takes the root of up to almost 5000 kilometers.

[00:06:42]The round-trip [record] belongs to our Arctic animal - Arctic tern this is the longest record from round trip from northern to southern polar region - 40 000 km sorry one way and for example the highest migration altitude - the record belongs to bar-headed goose that travels at the altitude of 9,000 kilometers, which is very very high higher than Like I said, there are different strategies of migration, basically, there are 3 main patterns of migration: DIURNAL MOVEMENT - opening day and night When you can see here on the image and seasonal movements and long distance journeys. As for diurnal movements - for example it is the case of planktonic organisms in water column.

[00:07:56]For example, copepods move up during the night in water column and down to the depth during the day.

[00:08:06]It's a so-called vertical journal migration Also we have seasonal movements when for example deers move up to the mountains in summer and to the valleys in winter in search of food Right, so we're saying that search of food is one of the reasons, and it is basically one of the main reasons why animals migrate, because migration is driven by a very simple fact that resources on Earth fluctuate.

[00:08:46]So we have warm summer months and days that are followed by inhospitable cold Like I wrote in the beginning today it was maybe not that cold, but rather snowy. so plants or other meals maybe one time, in the summer abundant but only for a short time.

[00:09:07]Sometimes the best place to give birth or hatch eggs may not be a good place to find something to eat.

[00:09:15]So while migrations can be complex the motivation behind themare quite simple so food breeding and climate reoccurring themes.

[00:09:29]In search of food, good habitat for breeding animals choose to travel. But how do they know, if they don't don't have a clock or calendar?

[00:09:45]How do they know when to start and when to come back?

[00:09:50]It's basically a combination of internal signs like hormones that trigger an urge to eat; at some point organism is creating is a lot of hormones that tell an animal 'you have to eat; 'You have to eat a lot' 'You have to mate', 'you have to reproduce' so there are the internal mechanisms that trigger some behavior and then the external sign, like temperature change, daylight hours, and of course the food the scarce food.

[00:10:31]As for this light It is Daylight hours. It is a very important factor. It's a so called photoperiod. Photoperiod is the amount of light that is available in the day. So when the days get shorter that is the hint: 'Well we should think of preparing ourselves to migrate'. So those are the mechanisms and like I said there's the round trip, and return trip, which is seasonal. What is interesting sometimes it takes the whole lifetime or even more to complete the mmigration journey that means that the same organism that organism that began the journey is not going to complete it, is not going to come back to the same place and this is the case of for example monarch butterfly; it takes more than one generation to complete the journey.

[00:11:35]So Where do animals move?

[00:11:42]The routes are very different. They go north, they go south they go east and west, they go up to the mountains, back to the sea, up the rivers and I'd like to show a short time lapse provided thanks to a website that you can enter as well - movebank.org This website is showing day by day how Migrating animals move thanks to base rate tracking and this shows one is What happened in April last year?

[00:12:47]What you can see here in red are animal movie prophecy In the sea on the land in the air So the process movements Multitec Those are many pairs from the northern Europe going south with us that was obviously Going to Africa a winter and so on and so on so you can observe it a Course on your own it's quite impressive and sweet reminds a little bit map of playing house lanes to Move and this point intention wouldn't always see that in our everyday life, but it happens every every day, so Probably many If you had to imagine an ideal my drunk editor What do you think? What would be the threats what what what with it had to be like first an ideal?

[00:14:33]non-existence my grant Yeah aerobic capacity. Yes so our migratory demons can serve as a starting point for for cutting migration performance in real liquor, so The problems to solve our navigation how to store energy how to get food on route and also how to How to endure during the journey first of all For navigation look at the picture here. This is an interesting fact that for example birds take into account influence of Wind on their movement when they're choosing direction. So if they want to go here northeast This is where the what they want to reach. They actually go straight Straight north because they if the wind is in this direction, this is Western wind so they know that the wind is going to influence how they are going to perform their route and It's exactly the same if they want to go this way so They take it they need to take into account various things like wind for exam so about Navigation finding the route, there are many Navigation mechanisms and not all of them are already well recognized by by us so for example, their landmark animals are remembering the landmarks like Reverse like mountains like host slide Everything that is easy to remember and show the route this is basically how humans are also if they don't have a GPS and Another thing is some orientation so the animal will orient their body at the center certain angle in relation to the Sun s particular type of the day so till this External factor like sunlight activates a part of the brain is just necessary for for navigation so That is to say that animal is less in the morning when the Sun is low in the sky In Spanish to head in some directions To travel in certain direction with the Sun in a position related to this but it is called an internal Temp context okay, but animals not don't only travel in the flame Sun Sometimes there's no Sun visible. Sometimes they travel at night So there's also nice Skype orientation Night sky orientation has been proven in a canoeing experiment and appliances colloquy Show that some birds place kept in a planetarium That was showing the sky night sky oriented themselves Towards the south So and when the planetarium sky was slowly rotated the birds Meant maintain their orientation with respect to the Stars so they like they know the Stars and can orient them by the alien themselves by the Sun so numbers but also not only birds that are quite we would say developed organs but also vehicle so Asics are able to use this to use the night sky orientation Another thing is a magnet or reception and my mother reception is very interesting pattern or mechanism so It's like reading girl magnetic information from the earth please to use it for orientation so For example There was also an experiment where certain birds were testing occasions quite cool Experiment. Actually they were catching a cage, but they were so eager so willing to migrate that even then they were kept in a cage they were They wanted to go south for example in fall, even though they was no food The food was scarce. It wasn't cold so it wasn't Integral internal mechanism telling them we need to go south. And what is the South it was recognized. Thanks to magnetic Magnetic mechanist so if the magnetic field Change is changed. So the magnetic South appears in a different direction and that can be done in a controlled laboratory Environments so both will assemble in use the direction So the reference works out it not by certain luck, but by your magnetic Sigma so this Is the healthy behavior was proven in 1960 in in Germany?

[00:19:52]So it was demonstrated for the first time that my vessel burst indeed use some Magnetic proof, but how do they do it? You can see here on this image that birds have special organ in their ears It's a magnetite we could say it's a tiny piece of iron working as a tiny compound Since so this one thing this magnetite but also there's crustal kronite in their eyes, there is a something an organ We might say called crapha kronite that allows them to see Magnetic field in a way see it with it with it act another mechanism is olfaction and olfaction is Related to smelling because all factory navigation Has been suggested for example for pigeons Pigeons are said to build and remember like a mental map of smells others in their area and recognize when where they are by local cops It's the very same case no bond for pigeons, but also for some the olfaction is also very interesting Not that well-known a mecca. Also, there is echo location known for the useful by bath by dolphins, that means they're sending waves that are Returning to them and says how they navigate so many Many organs many adaptations are used by migratory animals to to cope What is migration dangerous In many ways ooh Germany Then to the convenient comfort like bad weather snow rain storm also predators some of them are using Some of them like for example, there's grounders No one shall moans migrate and when they're mostly vulnerable and they're waiting for them to To Trant easily so predators also lose those manic exhaustion and starvation even though Animals try to secure themselves journey may remain very long. They may not be able to hand on the right. And yes, there's also There's also the danger that they want to find enough food Getting close even though they're all those mechanisms work Sometimes it is also possible to get off especially if their base of landmarks and Humans change though as those landmarks. They be those roots that can seem like Rivers for example so is verse or other animals are confused as well?

[00:23:00]as for the human impact Of human infrastructure is also possible collision with man-made objects barriers Like the duct works like electricity line roads roads Bridges etc, etc. So a lot of non natural barriers are created by humans also Catastrophes like oil spills are very dangerous for talent For travelling animals and another way that humans are dangerous to migratory animals to are Expanding still still presence here like nets and guns Hunters and poachers, for example, you can see stock here It is a very popular We'll say a national invert in Poland, but also in France But those animals Those birds are still hunted for example in Malta So many of them do not come back because they are simply in hand So, how did you tell for such danger first such a long tough journey requires preparation So like I said in the beginning there is a hormone signal but triggering we need to eat So it's triggering a huge appetite So animals start to eat voraciously eat, whatever they find concentrate focus on to do on finding food and as a result of gaining significant amount of weight They even supplement their normal diet and other things like fruits grains even if they normally eat just isn't anything that can be converted into body fat is to be consumed so that Animals can gain as much energy magazines as possible because for example, it is necessary because during journey some birds can lose up to half of Their body weight during the journey, so they need to have extra fat Those So those hormonal signals make animals really Restless at nighttime, they they Constantly looking for food. Another thing is that they start to mode mode that means that they're changing their Content of birds are changing their feathers so they're lose their old feathers and they gain nice strong feathers that will keep them warm and allow them to fly fast during human race and So these are those changes in behaviour like eating physiological changes like this summer to fall mode and What happens during the journey? It's still all about energy conserving so many species you might see that they don't fly along the slide together in a certain formation because They can That way they can have optimal flight power and they can keep optimal distance and they safe And every day and every expenditure is this week So it of course there's also also better orientation and communication what you see here the famous So hope sleep formation. It's a shape of the letter that is optimal or minimum energy expenditure So we could ask ourselves is if it's an instinct or learned behavior well you can see here a comparison between instincts and learned behaviors and generally Migration is in thinking because it happens without previous experience we do without and again and again, however If there learn with age and we are able to survive Following cycles of migration there. It is crucial for their survival They're getting better and better with with practice passes everything So my graduate route for example are taught also by older members of the group in chaos So yes it is instinctive but it doesn't mean is they that young birds like animals don't need some guidance and Don't learn with H so How do we know that how are we able to track the movement that I showed you before So historically it was first recorded very long time ago three thousand years ago by Asian Greeks like Homer our shuttle and Four-sevenths pieces like storks, like turtle dove like swallow so birds made Then though there were some other Some other research following arrival of spring migrants So for example in the fall of in the beginning of 19th century American scientists wondered he was also drained of the bomb wondered whether migrating birds return to the same place Each year or not. So he tied a string around the leg of a bird before it blew up so the following spring keep saw the bird that He bird indeed did come back now we have of course more modern technologies this Kind of string, but it's basically the same Rule because we will use metal rings for birds, but this requires catching the birth Birth and catching to put the ring and then catching it very back to read the message There are also a plastic stickers that are attached to the wrist. Tiny animals like you can see here this Migratory of butterflies. There's a plastic sticker attached this week So like I said, there's this spy is free online database of animal tracking data and also we can help animals raffles and striking with researchers to manage the shirt protect a Archived a data, this is Laura something like our monitoring and mentoring system This is the move an ORAC. I showed you So now we'll end with five most amazing top migratory stories that will be That I find particularly interesting these humpback whale Arctic Terns monarch butterfly wildest and Salman and their particular interest in four values with first of all something you may have heard of it is one of the most Well known and also the most massive Migrations of most spectacular - it's the great Serengeti wild this migration while this is basically blue. This is the Seminole So during this journey vast numbers of surrogacy wildly accompanied by by zebra gazelle and Other animals move in an oil patch pattern which is surely is very predictable. So they look for Grazing area they look for fresh Fresh grass. Basically, I'm also a better water quality So the exact time income Migration is dependent upon the rainfall patterns each year. So it stops beginning at the same time You get to the same day every year but each year around the same time So it begins in a bottom bottle conservation area in southeastern gse In Tanzania, and it looks it looks clockwise like this in search like following good fresh grass and fresh quality a water quality, but It's not only like I said, it's a very dangerous Venture we would say because For example, if during crossings of settle rivers like Grumeti or model rivers beginning in the beginning of July They're very popular satellite section. But why are they so popular also quite cruel reason because crocodiles Already know that at that time there is going to abandon food lots of those animals passing So they're just lying in wait to hunt And not only for this reason but also because of exhaustion, etc, etc Thirst hunger predation to is about 250,000 wild beasts died during the journey 1/4 million of animals died so Well it is Quite difficult for them Just let me No, it's not yeah is this this one you I'm Wilbur G. I'm Matt Barbie. So we're sharing it The annual migration Amazing experience what you're sending creatures So this how it looks like quite spectacular, I don't know if you notice that I said the 250,000 while this guy doing the journey, but in one journey health of more than 2 million animals gathered so it is quite spectacular and another is and completely different of Migratory track travel our salmon fish and some fishes have one of the most impressive Migratory powers in animal kingdom because it travels from completely between completely different environments between freshwater and saltwater so after hatching the eggs the Salmons remain in fresh river waters for 2-3 years and for the next 3 4 years they are preparing to live in salt water and the in the time they develop their productive capacity and So they Migrate to salty water and after that they migrate back to fresh water and in the exact same river where they were born Because there's a home for spawning that we still catch the eggs So they use various techniques like Detecting magnetic fields and also all factions. Like I said sense of smell that help them Find find the route the route that it can take up to 4,000 kilometers and But what is more specific about?

[00:36:02]salmon dishes That way of adaptation to live between two different affair Because Salman is an another almost fish. What does it mean another?

[00:36:16]that is exactly that they traverse between freshwater and Salty water and how is that even possible? There's two completely different environments requiring different adaptations So like I said after hatching Their summers remain in rivers for 2-3 years. And in that time they undergo many changes in physiological changes and behavioral changes for example It's it's related with osmosis with drinking and blocks is love drinking water with osmoregulation And it's a process called mortification Multiplication is you look at those two fish. These are both Discolor and this is almond is exactly the same fish the same individual but B is before and after multiplication is Adapt to this different Environment in many ways they have special ends. They create special and then They kidneys function differently into habitat And etc, etc. So there there are various adaptations and And Multiplication is is the most effective one of them mostly it is not only helped what they looked like but also Basically mechanism of no regulation There is also this humpback Whale a giant one as you can see here related to a bus. It's a giant animal It's not the biggest wave is Not the biggest always on earth, but it makes the longest migration of any mammal in the world. Like I said, it's 20 can be 20 meters long and weigh up to 40 tons, so it's really this is a giant and They'll travel through every part of world's ocean and cover the distance of 20. Mm no meters every each and every year so they're spent summer season near polar regions of north and of South There are feed on krill clam shells smaller fish but in the beginning of winter Season they migrate to equator and they make and give very best to cows here near the equator and This is also a change of environment from very cold ones to very to rather warm one and During this digression for example females and small ways movements first in groups just for safety and I hope you can Listen to this beautiful Song by humbugs whale No, this is not that I hope you can hear it is not I will send you the link You you you You you you You Okay, so that was a very beautiful unique song By humbug way, like I said that people in small ways move move move together and mothers and their young cows switch goes together often touching each other with Silver's and that appears to be a gesture of the affection and Arctic Tern an absolutely Absolute migratory top animal top bird is flying from north to south and covering during this life of 30 years of more covering the distance of 2.4 million kilometers and it is equal to three trips to the moon and Back, so how did I survive they have?

[00:41:12]so-called fuel stopped will invade they stopped to gain, some energy due to hunt they hunt for small fish and crustaceans and Also, hope they Managed to travel they appear to be following huge winged patters in the atmosphere and That's how they evolved flying into the wind. They just slide with the wind and winds helped them helps them cover the disease and The last button of least one it's a monarch butterfly and My butterfly looks like this You might know him. It is most familiar in North America and it's an iconic pollinator species Its migration is one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in the world so a The model of migration usually starts in about October each year and start earlier sometimes so starting with sand rocktober as Eastern and lost eastern populations migrate from South and Health, Canada and United States to Wintering sites in central Mexico. They arrive here around November then they start the return trip in the March and arrive around July but the thing is no individual butterfly completes this entire run so the female monarchs lay eggs for the next generation during the migration and So not not even one dividual seeds the whole the whole cycle Please know that Adult butterflies last leave 2 to 6 weeks So this is quite extraordinary what kind of instinct drives them to do that even though they will never see the end of their?

[00:43:19]journey So it should also know that that monarch butterfly is lovely I'm going to show you shell footage for the end and lovely but also very poison it is that is why it is marked with those bright colors as a warning sign for predators and but how do they get poisonous is also interesting because they have do not produce poison themselves a speed of poisonous plant it's a liquid and At the Reviver say they eat it and then the toxin from this plant accumulates in their bodies, and this is how they become poison So the most incredible thing, like I said is never not none of them is long enough to complete the journey but also they have remarkable abilities to navigate to find the roots, for example chemical markers markers the marked tree for orientation for others they also Just as exactly as words follow the position of the Sun Thanks to Kripke from in their antennae. They also recognize geographical features landmarks also as they take into account what happens in the terrain do they recognized so Like I said this recent hypotheses suggest that monarchs make the chemically marking certain trees Using some substances we still does no orienting themselves When they return the following with your images the same one won't wither the others will be returned and they are moving There is a basis for others to come back to complete their journey. So just add I'll try so show you though Yes Life cycle and of Monarch butterfly Of this larva Eating this milkweed and Gaining toxin So do this space you have a maximal positive And the full-grown adult butterflies So this is it for today