How do Monarch butterflys know where they came from?

Monarch migrate from a specific location in the Sierra Madres in Mexico to the north is like a relay race! The original butterfly dies along the way, but the offspring it leaves behind continues on to the north where the cycle will start again in the fall.


As fall approaches in the north, 2000 miles from their starting point, non-reproductive monarchs are born. These are the butterflies that will migrate south. They will not reproduce again until the following spring.


It is like your Grandmother started a journey. She dies but your mother who has never been to grandmas house continues the journey. She dies and you without every seeing or knowing returns to grandmas house.|||two reasons they have instinct and they use the magnetic signature of the area like homming pidgeons know where they are by sensing the magnetic signature the earth has a flowing and changing magnetic signature at different spots so they use magnetic fields as the early mariners used the position of the sun , moon or stars to navigate by Gorbalizer|||I feel that part of memory is generic. that the knowledge of your direct ancestors is, in part, in your head. well this might be a simplified example of just that.|||instinct