Are humans simply underchallenged?

As a follow-up to the popularity of the posting, "Past the breaking point," let's reconsider success.

Some human beings are motivated to work to break human records for endurance, speed, stamina, resilience and other qualities.  Success in this sense may relate to shattering what has already been done in a specific race or sport, being a pioneer in your field or, at least bettering yourself by personal efforts.  After all, everything you do can bring you a sense of success.  Even the intent to act is a positive move. 

You may not realize that what human beings consider to be the "toughest races" in the world, are often annual competitions for professionals or elite go-getters who do the races for fun. For those people who finish these races, results may seem impressive.  And they are.  However, its wise not to rest on any laurels.  No matter what goals you set out for yourself and realize, different challenges always await you somewhere.  If you start to feel smug, you might compare your  accomplishments to these startling efforts made by animal, fish and insect species simply to survive:

1)  A group of humpback whales seeking balmier waters have traveled a record-breaking 5,100 miles, the longest-ever documented migration undertaken by a mammal. http://www.livescience.com/animals/070410_whale_migration.html

2) Sooty shearwater birds migrate nearly 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) a year, flying from New Zealand to the North Pacific Ocean every summer in search of food, according to a new study. (The extensive summer trek is the longest animal migration ever recorded electronically).  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060808-bird-migration.html

3) Nicole, as the shark is being called, traveled from Africa to Australia and back—a total of 12,400 miles (more than 20,000 kilometers)—in nine months. The feat also set a second record: fastest return migration of any known marine animal. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1006_051006_shark_fastest.html

4) The arctic tern has the longest migratory flight. "It breeds mainly around the shores of the Arctic Ocean and then flies to the other side of the world to spend the remainder of the year in the Antarctic - a total distance, if it were to travel in a straight line, of at least 16,000 kilometres. In a lifetime, this is equivalent to flying to the Moon and back". (Guinness Book of Animal Records, p. 127)  http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/magazine/animal_migration.html

5)  Every year millions of the orange and black morach butterflies fly 4828 km (3,000 miles) from Canada to Mexico for the winter.  When the butterflies fly north, they lay eggs and then die near the borders of Mexico and the US, and the US and Canada. The next generation of insects then continues the journey.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4740000/newsid_4745300/4745315.stm