Land Animals With The Longest Terrestrial Migrations 🦌

What We're Showing

The longest known land animal terrestrial migrations in km.

Data comes from the study "Longest terrestrial migrations and movements around the world" by Joly, K., Gurarie, E., Sorum, M.S. et al. published in 2019.

Methodology

The longest migration distance was used for each species, and the years observed for the various animals ranged from 1980 to 2017.

Migration distances were calculated using straight-line, round-trip distances between key migratory endpoints, without considering terrain or obstacles. 

Caribous Are Nature’s Top Travelers

Caribous from the Bathurst herd (named after the herd's traditional calving grounds in Nunavut) and Porcupine herd (Yukon/Alaska) recorded the longest terrestrial migration at 1,350km.

Caribous typically have the longest migrations out of all land animals, with various herds (Bathurst, Porcupine, Leaf River, Western Arctic, and Qamanirjuaq) dominating the first five spots for longest migrations.

Caribou herds typically migrate seasonally between the Arctic tundra and forested regions, seeking safe calving (birthing) grounds in spring in the Arctic and richer feeding areas in summer.

The study noted that that while caribou likely do exhibit the longest terrestrial migrations on the planet, over the course of a year, gray wolves move the most.