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| Hugh Dingle, a noted expert on animal migration, was quoted in a LiveScience interview. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
DAVIS--Emeritus entomology professor Hugh Dingle, now based in the Sharon Lawler lab, is quoted in a LiveScience news story on “Why Do Animals Migrate?”
“Birds do it. Fish do it. Mammals, insects and reptiles do it. Migrate, that is,” wrote LiveScience senior staff writer Wynne Parry in "Life's Little Mysteries" posted Nov. 4.
Parry asked Dingle why animals don’t find a shorter, simpler journey or stop altogether. “The simple answer is that the benefits of long-distance migration outweigh its cost and the benefits of shorter distances,” Dingle told her.
Whales, Parry related, are the most lengthy mammal migrators, "traveling as much as 5,000 miles one way."
She also mentioned that one generation of monarch butterflies "flutters some 2,000 miles between southern Canada and central Mexico."
But a shorebird, the bar-tailed godwit, "holds the record for the longest nonstop flight: 6,835 miles in eight days," she pointed out.
Parry ended her article with "Their journeys aren't easy; migrants fast, swim upstream, fly nonstop, and face hungry predators and barriers built by humans. The journeys may be fatal to some; however, mortality data is difficult to obtain, according to Dingle."
He was quoted as saying: "My own suspicion is that it's a lot less than people think. They just seem able to do it well."
"Ten Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Animals" is linked to this LiveScience story.
For the last seven years, Dingle has been living and doing research at the University of Queensland, Brisbane. Now a resident of Davis, he is continuing his research from his headquarters in Briggs Hall.
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
