European eels are born in the Sargasso Sea, in the middle of the Atlantic. Their larvae drift for months or even years toward the coast and swim up rivers; years later, the adults head back on a journey of some 5,000 to 6,000 km. No one has ever seen eels spawn in the wild, and adults were only tracked all the way to the Sargasso Sea in 2022.
In 2022, a young tagged bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days of nonstop flight, covering 13,560 km without eating, drinking or landing. Before departure, these birds pile on huge fat reserves and shrink their digestive organs, which are useless during the journey.
To escape rivals, a dung beetle rolls its ball of dung in a straight line. At night, it holds its course using the glowing band of the Milky Way. In a planetarium, researchers showed that beetles rolled straight under a starry sky but wandered aimlessly when the galaxy was switched off. It was the first animal known to navigate this way.