The Arctic Tern is in it for the long run. Twice a year it embarks on a long venture to migrate from earth's North Pole to the Antartic and vice versa. This entails the world's longest migratory path of any bird. It endures this risky venture to optimize its overall risk reward trade-off.
With this migration it is constantly aiming to obtain the best survival circumstances. Since the Tern spends the Northern Hemisphere summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Northern Hemisphere winter months in the Southern Hemisphere it only knows summers. Summers usually sport a more plentiful supply of food and a better habitat in general.
Moreover, by flying from pole to pole twice a year, the Tern is always in those area's of earth where the longest daylight hours prevail. When the Tern is close to either one of the poles, it is exposed to daylight almost 24 hours a day. These birds enjoy more daylight in the course of a year than any other creature.
In order to optimally exploit tides and air currents, Arctic Terns 'living' in Northeastern North America even cross the Northern Atlantic first, before turning south down the western seaboard of Europe and ultimately via Africa's coast to Antarctica.
Arctic terns are long-lived. Many ringed ones have been re-trapped 10 or even 20 years later. They commonly live to become 30 years old. Oldest examples attained around 34 years of age. This means that they have travelled over 1 million km (over 650,000 miles) in their lifetime.
The Tern can be a great inspiration to all of us. It intuitively knows how to deal with some of life's greatest risks. It does not avoid risk altogether, but instead ventures out on a risky trek twice a year to optimize its living circumstances.
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