Nomadic animals wander from place to place, using no particular fixed routes - unlike a migration - rather than staying in one tightly defined area. There are boundaries to their wanderings and some species, wolves for example, are still territorial. Often, animals may be nomadic only part of the time, during particular seasons, like badgers, or particular life cycle phase, as with young male lions. Nomadism in these cases has reproductive advantages, allowing males to visit different groups of females and ensure a healthy gene pool.

Watch video clips from past programmes (1 clip)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

Other Behavioural pattern Adaptations

Explore the BBC

BBC © MMIX

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.