It's a myth: no ostrich buries its head to escape danger, as it would suffocate. When threatened, it either runs at over 60 km/h or lies flat on the ground with its neck stretched out to blend into the landscape. And when it does dip its head into its nest, a shallow pit in the ground, it is simply turning its eggs.
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.