Ocean Animal Migrations

Question 1

Which statement correctly describes the annual migration of gray whales?

Accepted Answer

Each fall, gray whales leave the cold, plankton‑rich waters of the Bering Sea and travel about 12,000 miles south to the warm, shallow lagoons of Baja California, where they give birth and care for their calves before returning north in the spring to feed.

Answer

Gray whales migrate from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic every summer, traveling only a few hundred miles, to find cooler water for their skin.

Answer

Gray whales travel from the Pacific coast of Chile to the open ocean near Hawaii each winter to find new breeding grounds, covering roughly 2,000 miles.

Answer

Gray whales spend the entire year in the warm waters off the coast of Mexico because the water there always has plenty of food.

Question 2

Each year gray whales travel thousands of miles from the cold Arctic waters where they eat lots of tiny crustaceans in the summer to the warm coastal waters of Mexico in the winter. Which explanation best describes why they make this long journey?

Accepted Answer

They move to the warm water to give birth and raise their calves, then return to the Arctic where food is plentiful in summer.

Answer

They travel to the warm water because the water there has more food for them in winter.

Answer

They follow the ocean currents, which push them toward Mexico.

Answer

They go to the warm water to avoid predators that are more common in the Arctic during winter.

Question 3

A loggerhead sea turtle feeds in the waters off Florida and then travels to a nesting beach in the Caribbean, about 2,400 miles away. If the turtle makes the round‑trip journey, roughly how many thousands of miles does it travel?

Accepted Answer

about 5 thousand miles

Answer

about 3 thousand miles

Answer

about 2 thousand miles

Answer

about 8 thousand miles

Try three questions

Which statement correctly describes the annual migration of gray whales?

Each year gray whales travel thousands of miles from the cold Arctic waters where they eat lots of tiny crustaceans in the summer to the warm coastal waters of Mexico in the winter. Which explanation best describes why they make this long journey?

A loggerhead sea turtle feeds in the waters off Florida and then travels to a nesting beach in the Caribbean, about 2,400 miles away. If the turtle makes the round‑trip journey, roughly how many thousands of miles does it travel?

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