Mondo Knows Facts
No monarch butterfly completes the whole migration
The return journey north takes three or four generations Butterflies east of the Rockies fly to central Mexico each autumn and cluster on oyamel firs. Those same individuals head north in spring but stop to breed in the southern states. Their offspring continue the journey in stages until another long-lived generation flies south. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
The monarch butterfly makes the longest insect migrationSome eastern monarchs travel about 4,800 kilometres to MexicoSalmon find their home river by smellThey remember the chemical signature of the water where they hatchedEuropean eels breed in the Sargasso SeaNo one has watched them spawn there, only found their smallest larvaeSome swifts stay airborne for monthsRadio tracking shows common swifts flying without landing for most of the non-breeding seasonArctic terns complete the longest migration of any animalArctic terns fly about 90,000 kilometres annually from pole to pole.Monarch butterfly migration spans four distinct generationsThe butterflies returning south in autumn have never been there before.
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Tags: butterflies, migration, generations
No monarch butterfly completes the whole migration: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The return journey north takes three or four generations. The figure is taken from US Fish and Wildlife Service, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.