Page 97 - The Miracle of Migration in Animals

HARUN YAHYA

Seabirds Migrating at the Poles

Generally, the majority of birds breeding at the poles try to stay
close to their established colonies, but the frozen sea and winter
darkness compel them to migrate to ice-free areas. For example, the
Sabine gull (larus sabini) of the North Pole is a migrant that flies as far
as South Africa and the west coast of Peru.
Sterna paradisaea, the arctic tern, which has a vast breeding
ground at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, flies south to
the shores of Antarctica. This species makes the longest migration,
covering an astonishing 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) over a
round trip between the North Sea and Antarctica. 29
In so doing, it travels from summer in the north to summer in
the south. The young birds and some non-breeding adults either stay
in the south or linger in places with a good food supply. But at the
first sign of spring, the birds that breed in northern regions must re-
turn to the Arctic Sea, or else they cannot complete the breeding cycle
in time for their young to complete their feather development before
winter comes.
The smallest bird living at the North Pole is the Wilson storm
petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) weighing a mere 35 to 40 grams (1.2 to 1.4
ounces). This bird, which nests in clefts in the rocks, has very little
time in the summer to complete its breeding cycle. In the breeding
season, it migrates south and is to be found in the North Indian
Ocean and the North Atlantic. The superb performance this tiny bird
displays is the result of the perfect body features, created for it by
God, thanks to which it can migrate very great distances.

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