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Emigration is not an unusual event in nature. The evolution of species can be described as an adaptation to the ecological niche a species succeeded to conquer and colonise. There are events of migration that can been understood as an expression of free will — also in animals?

If the conditions in the niche change (e.g. food, temperature, salinity, food competition, new predators), the species can either adapt or migrate to another niche, or it will disappear. (Let’s leave aside the question of the extent to which the species changes the niche for the moment). Many aquatic animals in particular are currently confronted with this question in an existential way due to the warming of the oceans.

Free will in human migration

In humans, we may assume that emigration can, at least in some cases, be the result of a decision by free will. Example: The Vandals once settled at the mouth of the Oder (north-eastern Germany). In the second century they were possibly forced by scarcity or drawn by the temptations of a southern clime to emigrate, which they most likely decided of their own free will, given that half of the people and one of the two kings did not leave (dual kingship was common among German peoples then). The half that migrated across half of Europe, driven ahead by the Visigoths who in turn were driven by migrating peoples from the east. After finally settling in Andalusia, in the year 409 AD, again under pressure from the Visigoths, one of the two kings and half of the people decided twenty years later to cross the Strait of Gibraltar and conquer North Africa and settle there — this too must have been a free decision, carried out against the will of those who stayed behind.

Free will in animals?

But what about animals? Are there cases where the migration of a species (or of one of its local stocks) can be explained by a decision in which free will has played a role? If we are able to do so, why should other living beings — with whom we shared most of the evolutionary process — be unable to do it as well?

Do you happen to know of an example where free will has played a role in the migration and therefore in the evolution of a species? Please share it with us.

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First published on 04.02.2024 in the Facebook think.fish group

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Reaktionen auf Facebook (2024):

Dänu: Cats? They shure have a free will and migrated across half the globe.

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