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.
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.
When winter comes, the North American wood frog lets up to two-thirds of its body water turn to ice. Its heart stops and it stops breathing. To protect its cells, its liver floods the body with glucose, a natural antifreeze. When the thaw arrives, its heart starts beating again and it hops away as if nothing had happened.