When confronted by a coyote or fox, several horned lizard species raise the blood pressure in their heads until small vessels near the eyelids burst. A jet of blood can shoot more than a meter. The blood contains compounds that canids find foul-tasting, so they let go. Against birds of prey, though, the trick seems useless.
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.