Migration

What is it that makes animal migration such a magnificent spectacle for the eye and the mind? Is it the sheer abundance of wildlife in motion? Is it the steep odds to be overcome? Is it the amazing feats of precise navigation? The answer is all of the above. But there’s another quality noted, that is “destructibility” of migrating animals. ANIMAL MIGRATION IS a phenomenon far grander and more patterned than animal movement. It represents collective travel with long-deferred rewards. There are five identified characteristics that apply, in varying de- grees and combinations, to all migrations. They are prolonged movements that carry animals outside familiar habitats; they tend to be linear; they involve special behaviors of preparation (such as overfeeding) and arrival; they demand special allocations of energy. And one more: Mi- grating animals maintain a fervid attentiveness to the greater mission, which keeps them undistributed by temptations and undeterred by challenges that would turn other animals aside.