Watching the great animal migrations abroad: what is it, why should you do it and where should you go?

What are large animal migrations?

• Animal migrations are the periodic movements that animal species make in search of food, mating grounds, or a pleasant climate.
• The term “The Great Migration” usually refers to the migration of more than a million wildebeests, antelopes, and other herbivores in East Africa.

Where and when can you encounter large animal migrations abroad?

African savanna animals

• The Great Migration takes place between the Masai Mara in Kenya and the Serengeti in Tanzania.
• July, August, and September are the best months to see the animals in large numbers and witness a spectacular crossing of one of the rivers up close in Masai Mara National Park.

Bats

• In Africa, there is another large migration that may attract fewer tourists but is the largest mammal migration in the world. With 8 million straw-coloured fruit bat gathering in Kasanka, Zambia, it is truly a wonderful natural phenomenon.
• From October to December, the fruit bats gather here from across much of Africa.

Butterflies

• You will experience a completely different atmosphere during the migration of monarch butterflies. These butterflies travel from North America to Mexico in the fall.
• The best time to see the monarch butterflies in Mexico is December, January, or February. During this time, there are certain areas of forest where every tree is covered with these beautiful butterflies.
• El Rosario Butterfly Sanctuary in Ocampo is a good place to experience this natural phenomenon.

Caribou

• The caribou of northern Canada also migrate in large herds from summer to winter grounds and vice versa. It is particularly worth visiting in the spring when small groups slowly merge into large herds.

Red crabs

• You can see a colorful but also somewhat creepy sight on Christmas Island in Australia.
• The red crab migration takes place in October and November, when 120 million crabs migrate from the forests to the coast to lay their eggs.

Sardines

• In a number of places around the world, hundreds of thousands to millions of sardines gather. These include the Philippines and Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa.

Whales

• Every year, 10 to 20,000 gray whales pass along the coast of Vancouver.
• Humpback whales swim past in large numbers at several locations during their migration.
• Other whales may not migrate in large numbers, but even seeing a small number of whales swimming by can be quite impressive.