Longest Animal Migrations

About This Dataset

The approximate distances animals travel in a year during migration, in kilometres. The Arctic tern makes the longest journey of any animal, flying pole to pole and back - roughly 70,000 km a year - chasing endless summer at both ends of the Earth.

✨ AI Insight

The Arctic tern (≈70,000 km) makes by far the longest migration of any animal, flying from Arctic breeding grounds to Antarctic feeding waters and back each year - over a lifetime, equivalent to several round trips to the Moon. The sooty shearwater (≈65,000 km) is a close second, and both are seabirds that exploit flight's efficiency to cover oceanic distances. A large gap separates them from the marine mammals and reptiles: the humpback whale (≈22,000 km) and leatherback turtle (≈20,000 km) manage roughly a third as far, limited by the slower pace of swimming. The land-bound caribou (≈5,000 km) makes the longest terrestrial migration but travels a fraction of the airborne champions' distance, underlining how flight unlocks journeys no walking or swimming animal can match.

Source: Visual Capitalist / migration tracking studies

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Arctic tern leads with 70,000 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 36,400 · median: 22,000.

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Gap in All Time: Arctic tern is 14× larger than Caribou.