How and why do animals migrate back to their birthplaces?
It’s impressive to see the precision with which some animals migrate back to their birthplaces. In scientific terms, this is called natal philopatry. But how exactly do they know how to get back after months or even years of being away?
One theory would be that animals that migrate, such as sea turtles or Antarctic fur seals, can feel variations in the Earth’s geomagnetic field and use them to find their way back to their breeding ground. Other theories suggest animals use smell to navigate to their sites of birth. Pacific salmons are thought to use their smell senses and search for certain chemical traces to get back home.
There are other theories regarding natal philopatry but for the moment, there’s no clear answer, as to how and why animals do it.
