Eli5: animals know where to go to across the world

201 viewsOtherPlanetary Science

In this world, there are thousands of species who travel across the world. How do they know where to go and how do they know they must go?

In: Planetary Science

Anonymous 0 Comments

They don’t ‘know’. They have an instinct to do so at some point of their life or every year. E.g. bird’s instinct may trigger when the nights become longer and colder and it is compelled by it to go somewhere.
As to how they find this somewhere, there are different mechanisms. Some species follow the winds/currents of the right temperature, some have a sense of Earth’s magnetic field.