A female kangaroo can care for three young at once: one hopping at her side, one in her pouch and an embryo whose development she puts on hold while the pouch is occupied. Even more remarkably, she can produce two different kinds of milk at the same time, each suited to the age of the joey drinking from that teat.
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.