Humpback whale and other epic migrations

A humpback whale, photographed here off the Pacific coast of Colombia, made an epic migration, all the way to the Indian Ocean.

Do you ever wish you could move to a warmer part of the world for a few months of the year - especially when it's drizzly, cold and grey outside?

Well, many land and sea creatures do just that - it is called migration.

Scientists studying this have been stunned by a humpback whale, who has been spotted over 13,000 kilometres from where it was last photographed, making it one of the most epic whale migration journeys ever recorded.

The male humpback was first seen in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia in 2017, and then appeared near Zanzibar, in the Indian Ocean in 2022.

Experts think the huge journey might be down to climate change affecting food stocks or that it was searching the oceans for a mate.

What is migration and why do animals do it?

Six million antelope can be seen making their way from South Sudan. They travel across the border into the Gambella National Park in Ethiopia in what's called the 'Great Nile Migration'.

Migration is a term for animals moving from one place to another due to an instinctive need to survive.

Food, water and breeding are some of the reasons they do it.

Others are looking for a place to hibernate or hunker down for the colder winter months.

Some animals habitats have become overcrowded so moving on to form new colonies is also a reason for migration.

And others, like sea turtles, migrate to find a safe place to lay their eggs.

Famous migrations

Monarch butterflies migrate around 3,000 miles a year for warmer climates.

Monarch Butterflies

In North America, thousands of orange and black monarch butterflies make the journey to their winter home in central Mexico.

The 3,000-mile migration is one of the insect world's fantastic feats, with millions making the journey from as far north as Canada down into Mexico and the California coast each autumn.

There are concerns that threats to their habitat is causing a drop in their numbers.

However, experts hope more than 225 million monarch butterflies will continue to arrive in Mexico each year to enjoy the warm weather.

See what it looks like here.

Loggerhead Turtles

Female turtles return to the beach where they were born to lay their own eggs.

Green and loggerhead and leatherback turtles all migrate in search of food and to lay their eggs.

Every two or three years, a female turtle may travel over 7,000 miles (12,000km) to return to the beach where she hatched decades before.

Male turtles don't leave the ocean once they've entered it, but females come out to lay their eggs on sandy beaches during nesting season.

They can lay between 65 and 180 eggs at a time.

Red crabs

One of the most incredible sights is the migration of the red crabs in Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

The spectacular event usually takes place around November and sees some 50 million red crabs travel from their home in the island forests to the ocean, and the Moon plays an important part in the migration.

The red crabs all leave their burrows at the same time, when the Moon is in its third-quarter phase.

Once they have mated, the female crabs stay in little burrows on the beach for a few weeks while their eggs grow.

When the tide is high, the female crabs will head into the water just before dawn to lay their eggs - which hatch straight away into tiny crab larvae.

Then the adult crabs will head back home into the forests, with the babies following when they have developed enough.

Wildebeest

Wildebeest are joined by zebras and other herd animals crossing a river.

Every July and August, more than a million wildebeest and herd animals migrate form the Serengeti in Tanzania to the grasslands of the Masai Mara National Reserve, in Kenya - and they're all searching for food.

The Great Migration is the largest animal movement on the planet with as many as 1.5 million wildebeest travelling, as well as just under a million zebras, topi and eland.

They have to cross mighty rivers, and face hunters like lions, cheetahs and crocs!