Loggerhead Turtle’s Internal GPS-guided Migration

With springtime quickly approaching, despite Punxsutawney Phil, seer of seers, prognosticator of all prognosticators, awakening and declaring “6 more weeks of winter,” I’m thinking in awe of the migrating animals that every year travel vast distances, somehow navigating through oceans, skies, and land to find food, breed, or escape harsh weather. These journeys, often fraught with danger, highlight the incredible endurance and instincts that animals rely on to survive.  What unthinkable tenacity, perseverance, and guts.  But how?  What guides them?

In the article Sea Turtles’ Secret GPS: Researchers Uncover How Sea Turtles Learn Locations Using Earth’s Magnetic Field on uncnews.unc.edu’s article, they state:

Loggerhead turtles are famous for their extraordinary migrations, guided by an internal magnetic map that enables them to determine their location by detecting variations in Earth’s magnetic field… 

… loggerhead turtles can indeed learn and remember the magnetic fields of areas where they receive food. This ability suggests that turtles use learned magnetic information to navigate back to foraging areas, helping explain their remarkable navigational accuracy over long distances.

If I were a migrating loggerhead turtle, I would likely die part way IF I even had the guts to start the migration in the first place.  Flooded with doubts, questioning the decision and direction, overwhelmed with indecision.