Skunk cabbage, a wetland plant, blooms at the end of winter. Its flower spike burns starch reserves a bit like a small warm-blooded animal and holds itself at around 20°C, even when the air is freezing. It melts the snow around it, spreads its scent more effectively and offers pollinating insects a cozy shelter.
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.