It’s not just humans, animals and birds travel the world, navigating hard circumstances with breathtaking abilities.Africa’s wildebeest move annually over 1,000 miles, wintering in Tanzania’s Serengeti, leaving for Kenya’s Masai Mara in spring, returning in November. Wildebeest travel in herds of over one million, deriving courage from numbers, facing terrifying crocodiles and lions along the way.

Leatherback sea turtles

are the ultimate ‘foodies’ — loving jellyfish, they travel between tropical beaches for prey, often swimming over 10,000 miles. Leatherbacks off North America’s Pacific Coast swim up to Indonesia — one called ‘

Yoshi

’ even travelled 22,000 miles. Guided by the sun, shoreline cues, tides and a special magnetic compass, many famously arrive to nest at the very same beach they were born on before taking off again.

Delicate dragonflies are hardy travellers, flying twice as far as Monarch butterflies. Millions fly from south India to Africa, crossing 18,000 miles, while others travel from Canada to the West Indies. Night-time travellers, they follow songbird migration patterns, chasing the Indian monsoon to showers in Africa — remember them the next time you’re enjoying some rain!

Research:

Smithsonian Magazine

,

BBC

,

National Geographic