Vagrancy in Animals (And A Very Sad Penguin)

The phenomenon of vagrancy is seen in many other animals besides birds, such as sea turtles, which are also thought to use geomagnetic sensory guidance to travel long distances. In insects, vagrant moths, butterflies and dragonflies are observed.

Even mammals such as seals, whales, manatees and bats are known to be occasionally observed far outside of their normal range. Having the occasional mutation that allows for this aberrant behavior is actually advantageous to the species as a whole, or at least to the adaptation or evolution of it.

This manatee was seen in Virginia, way north of its normal home in Florida and the Carribean Sea.

If more than one vagrant of a species arrives in a new habitat and are able to survive and breed, whole new opportunities open up for that species. This is a time-tested mode of species colonisation that has been going on for eons.

Dead Vagrant Shearwater, Caleb Putnam.

What's good for the species, however, is usually not to kind to the individual. Most vagrants end up dying in their new home, exhausted from their journey, with unknown dangers, uncertain food supplies and all alone. This incredibly poignant and moving clip from Werner Herzog's Encounters At the End of the World addresses this phenomenon in penguins. Watching a confused/lost penguin slowly march to his cold, lonely death in the barren Antarctic wasteland is one of the saddest things...