Sea turtles have long mystified researchers by returning to beaches where they were hatched, magnetic signals may be the key, new research finds.

Loggerhead turtles “dance” when exposed to food-associated magnetic fields, and their magnetic map may help them return to specific areas after long migrations.

Sea turtles are capable of creating GPS-like magnetic maps to guide them back to foraging grounds, and they do a little dance when they recognize those spots

Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) are pretty loyal marine reptiles. Even with their roughly 8,000-mile-long migrations across oceans, they consistently return to the same feeding and nesting sites.

These aquatic reptiles swim thousands of miles across the open ocean to return to the same foraging grounds and nesting sites. They don’t always take the shortest, most direct route, but they do eventually get to where they’re going.