In the arid mountains of the western United States, a bristlecone pine nicknamed Methuselah has been dated by ring counts to more than 4,800 years old, one of the oldest known non-clonal trees. Its exact location is kept secret to protect it from vandals. These pines survive by letting parts of their trunk die back to conserve resources.
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.